Red Feathers in Old Home
by Dark Day For Anime
Summary: 4 to 5 years after her arrival in Glie, Rakka is faced with looking after a troubled newcomer to the Old Home, and dreams a prophecy of the return of a legendary Akabane....
1. Part 1: Summer Feathers Cocoon

**DARK DAY FOR ANIME - THE RIGHT DISHONOURABLE MARK A PAGE**

**Disclaimer: Haibane Renmei is, irrefutably, the product of Yoshitoshi ABe as well as Aureole Secret Factory and Fuji Television. It was produced and aired in 2002. Which makes it an awfully long time since there has been an anime worth watching. **

**----o**

It is almost impossible to explain to someone what it is like to not have any memories. So much of our being is wrapped in the cloak of the past, simply as a point of reference to the now, that we have lost the ability to remember what things were like when we were just newborns. Losing one's memory is not entirely the same, because it doesn't mean, by definition, that we lose everything about ourselves. We don't necessarily lose the ability to walk, to talk, to think and have opinions. Deeply ingrained facets needed for our survival seep through the veil, and the amnesiac wonders why they have these things when they don't have a past.

**----o**

The past was lost to her, perhaps forever. She felt as if she were waking for the first time, which was patently untrue, she was sure, but there was nothing before this moment. Nothing at all but an insurmountable void that left her in a state of sheer, unmitigated panic.

She opened her eyes and stared at a floor, descending into a horrible, ruddy distance. She wanted to move, but found that she couldn't. All she could do was stare through eyes smeared with red, as the redness extended towards the solitary light, rectangular in shape. She thought she could see someone there, and tried to call out to them, but her voice would not work, her mouth would not move. She was paralysed, she realised, and what little sensation she could feel was retreating from her extremities. A great darkness was opening up, and she felt the greatest fear she was ever going to experience.

And then darkness. And warmth.

**----o**

**An Haibane Renmei Fanfiction**

**Red Feathers in Old Home**

**(A Girl With Red Wings)**

**by Dark Day For Anime**

**Part 1**

**Summer - Feathers - Cocoon**

**----o**

The clouds shifted underneath Rakka's feet, yet did not give way to her weight. It was at this point that she realised that she had to be dreaming. And it had been a long time since she dreamt of clouds. She was wearing the smock in which she was born, as a Haibane... the soft, white smock that had been folded and placed in a trunk almost five years ago. She placed her hands against the front of the smock and started to brush down the creases and folds. For some reason, she felt comforted by doing this.

A voice, on the edge of her consciousness caught her attention. It was so indistinct that the sounds of the wind that blew the clouds almost drowned it out. Rakka turned back and forth, looking for the origin of the voice, but there were only indistinct shapes in the semi-darkness of the pre-dawn sky. The voice faded, then returned anew, stronger than before.

She floated along the cloudtop, her small grey wings flapping, seemingly effective, although it could have been an illusion. It was an illusion: this was a dream. And yet, somehow, she felt as if this was really happening. And that thought frightened her. The voice started to fade again, and then returned even louder. "Time..." The voice was whispery, but gentle. "Time for me..."

"Who's there?" Rakka's own voice sounded small and frightened, especially to herself.

"Light... Red... Dreamer..." The voice whispered, words disjointed, like fragments of longer sentences unheard in their entirety, yet gentle and soporific, a comforting edge that rolled over and through Rakka's mind, dulling most of her fears. She had an indistinct impression of a face, and knew, almost immediately, to whom the voice belonged.

She was also acutely aware that she had experienced such ephemeral phantoms before. Swallowing, she managed to croak out... "What are you... Why..."

"The time of light is near..." The voice continued. "Yet so far. The blooded one is falling into your arms, only to be let go."

The world spun, the clouds fading into the dark, cold landscape of winter in the early hours of morning. By the break in the wall of Old Home, the edge of the woods stood beckoning as Rakka stared up into the face of the tall, dark-haired Haibane, standing on the brink of destiny.

A moment of silence passed between them, Rakka searching for what to say whilst already knowing the words, the other seemingly happy to smile at her, waiting. Waiting for her. Waiting for her to... "We..." Rakka struggled with the words. "We'll see each other again someday, won't we?"

"Yeah, I believe so." The voice was so distinct, so clear and so much like HER that Rakka wanted to cry.

"I believe so, too." She swallowed, knowing what was to happen next.

Only it didn't. Not as she had expected. Her perspective changed. Night changed into day, the cold of winter into the stifling warmth of summer. And she was the one standing on the brink of destiny between the break in the wall and the edge of the woods, looking down into the face of a younger Haibane, also dark haired and very similar in appearance to her old friend. The girl's face was a calm mask that hid the anxiety Rakka knew had to exist within. HAD to...

"Close your eyes." Rakka said, suddenly.

"Eh?" The girl raised an eyebrow.

"It's custom for a Haibane to disappear without notice when their day of flight comes."

The girl looked away. "Rakka is Rakka to the end. I only wish you'd told me."

"We never get to choose when our time comes. We can only do what we're empowered to do in the time that we're given." And with that, Rakka reached out a closed hand. The girl looked at it, quizzically, before accepting Rakka's gift. A red feather.

And then Rakka was back in the clouds, the vision of the girl fading rapidly, leaving Rakka with little more than questions. "What does this mean?" She reached out into the empty clouds. "What do you mean? Who is the blooded one? Re..." Rakka withdrew her hands as the clouds started to glow a dull red. "Ki...?" No, it wasn't the clouds themselves, but thousands of floating feathers... Red feathers.

Not just any red, but a bright, almost glowing hue. The filaments of the combs standing out individually on each one. Rakka hugged herself tightly, watching the feathers fly by, a blood-hued storm of such intense complexity that she felt dizzy, almost nauseous. And from behind them, as if chasing them away, came a brilliantly intense light...

**----o**

And then there was light. Rakka opened her eyes as the sunlight of an early morning dawn

peeked over the top of Old Home, bathing the roof at the far end in a golden glow. Rakka sat up in her bed and stared out of the window, blearily. She reached up to her face, and felt drying tears. She then looked down at her pillow, which was also wet with tears. Just what had she been dreaming about, she wondered to herself? She very rarely remembered her dreams these days. The practicality of living in Glie didn't afford her much time to consider such fancies, anymore.

She wiped the tears away and stretched, yawning. The sky outside was an increasingly deep azure blue, the clouds being banished to the horizon by the warmth of the summer sun. She peered over at the cabinet beside her bed. It was only just past 6am, according to the small clock Kana had given her a few months beforehand. It had been a gift from Kana's boss, for services rendered when Kana had fallen ill after riding her bike home in the rain and cold. Rakka had always told Kana that she should take Reki's old scooter, which had been steadily and uselessly gathering cobwebs inside a small wooden shed perched up against the northern wing of Old Home, rather than ride the rickety old pushbike... It didn't offer any more protection against the rain, but at least it would have meant spending less time in the weather, and Reki really didn't need it anymore...

Rakka sighed and stood from her bed, got herself washed and dressed in short order, then wandered over to the common room, where she put the kettle on, still yawning. She had promised Kumiko, the secretary of Glie's festivals committee, that she would help out on the setting up of the Summer Market Festival. She'd managed to avoid it during her previous few summers by claiming she had other things to do, but was buttonholed by the young woman this year after some behind-the-scenes plotting with the Town Council and the Haibane Renmei, most specifically the Washi, who seemed amused at the prospect of dropping Rakka in the deep end. If it hadn't been for the strictly-enforced rules of silence at the temple, the old man might have found out that, underneath her otherwise calm and occasionally shy exterior, Rakka had a demon's temper...

As she waited for the kettle to boil, she stepped out of the kitchen and across to the doors leading to the balcony area, opening them. Already, much of the bite of the cold night air was gone, and the breeze that ruffled her already messy hair was warm and inviting. She strolled out onto the balcony and leaned against the ledge, closing her eyes and soaking in the silence.

Nothing but the gentle breeze. Kana would be waking up about now. Probably. She certainly had more energy than anyone sane should have, this early in the morning. Rakka had only ever occasionally asked her about her early days in Glie, before Rakka, herself, had arrived. Kana never seemed all that keen on talking about it, which didn't surprise Rakka that much. Kana seemed the sort to have been something of a tearaway, though one who had been given direction very early, before she strayed off the path. Hikari, the only other Haibane left in Old Home who'd arrived before Rakka, was more than forthcoming about what things had been like for herself when she'd arrived. She was also mischievously forthcoming about the finer details of others' histories...

Rakka sighed and allowed her thoughts to subside. The breeze had settled. Now the

silence was almost total, and behind her eyelids she swore she could see the swirling of bright red feathers...

There was a whistle from the kitchen, and she stepped away from the ledge, stetching. "Ah..." She muttered to herself. "Almost dozed off there, for a second." She shook her head as she walked back through the doors and through into the kitchen, where she killed the flame underneath the kettle.

Before she had time to fill the teapot with leaves, however, she could hear squealing voices, coming from the other side of the courtyard. Not just any annoying, high-pitched squeals, but the voices of The Twins... Her heart sank. It looked like there wasn't going to be any peace for her for the rest of the morning. Grumpily, she trodged back to the balcony and looked down on the two short, blond-haired Haibane, who were practically chasing each other around the courtyard, excitedly. One of the two spotted Rakka and came to a dead stop, waving. The other didn't, and ran into the back of her, sending the pair sprawling across the ground. Almost immediately, and somewhat predictably, the pair sat up and started at each other.

"Oi! What did you do that for?"

"You're the one who stopped."

"S'not my fault. You weren't paying attention."

"That's right, blame me. You always blame me."

"Well you always blame me for things going wrong." The first sister pointed to the wings on her back. "And my wings are all dirty and creased, now. You know how neat I like to keep them."

Rakka shook her head. She'd never met a pair of Haibane like the twins before, and she'd met a few strange ones from the Abandoned Factory. In fact, nobody could remember there ever having been a pair of Haibane twins in Glie, not even the Washi. Rakka had been fortunate to have found their cocoons so early in their growth. It gave everyone more time to prepare for their arrival than they'd had for her own. And they'd needed it.

Because, right from the moment they'd popped out, they'd been nothing but trouble. From the fact that they both looked exactly alike (short and thin, with short, scruffy blond hair, round faces and greenish eyes), to their identical taste in clothes (they were both currently wearing simple, light blue dresses with matching cardigans and sandals) and their tendency to banter on with each other, often leading others in vocal circles. And they both had far, far too much energy for a normal person, let alone a normal Haibane.

What made it worse is that, nobody was sure if they were being consistent with their names, or whether they regarded them as interchangeable as their identities... They been given the names "Yu" and "Sa", which literally meant "right" and "left", after the dream they had in the cocoon where they had been sitting side by side, travelling together somewhere... They weren't sure where, and they were quite sure that it didn't really matter that much. "It wuz nowhere special", Yu would say whenever anyone would ask them. Or maybe it was Sa, pretending to be Yu. Or even Yu, pretending to be Sa pretending to be herself... Whatever. The possible mind games the pair could play with people seemed endless. Even worse was the fact that they always seemed genuinely genuine about it all, which would give Rakka a headache.

Right now, they were about to argue over another one of their foibles... Their seemingly inherent narcissism. At least, their narcissism about being Haibane. They took great pride in the fact that they had halos and wings, and ordinary townsfolk didn't. It frequently lead to their being on the receiving end of a few cranial wallops from their unfortunate minders, which they would, fortunately, take as a sign that they'd overstepped the mark. The townsfolk found them amusing, but then they didn't have to live with them.

Regardless, Rakka thought this was as good a time as any to head this argument off at the pass. "What are you two doing up this early in the morning?" She smiled and waved at them. They both turned to her, still looking like thunder.

"It's Sa's fault!" Said the sister who had stopped first in the courtyard, leading to the accident. "She's been waking up real early, lately. I need my sleep, or the day is just out of the window, if you know what I mean." Yu stretched out her arms expansively, as if trying to make a point. Sa whopped her one over the top of her head with a clenched fist. "Ow! What was that for?" Yu rubbed her head, turning to Sa in annoyance.

"I haven't been getting up early. I've been waking up when you've been waking up." Sa crossed her arms. "Besides, with all your snoring, it's amazing I'm able to get any sleep at all."

"I don't snore."

"Do so."

"Do not. You're the one who snores."

"Am not."

Rakka shook her head. "So, what about this morning? You two are never up before eight, regardless of who snores or not."

"Ah!" Yu put up a finger, a look of realisation on her face. "We don't have time to argue about this." She turned to Sa, whose expression mirrored her sister's.

"Yeah, we shouldn't be arguing now. It's an emergency. An emergency." They both turned to Rakka with stares so intense that she felt that she would be blown back into the

common room through sheer force of will.

"We heard a noise, coming a couple of rooms down from ours..."

"...So we thought we should check it out..."

"...And we found one!"

"Our first one!"

Rakka scratched her head as the pair held hands and started jumping up and down on the spot, excitedly repeating "our first one" over and over. "Umm, so... Would you like to tell me what it is you've found?" She eventually asked, impatiently. They both stopped and turned to her, smiling.

"We've found a cocoon." Said Yu.

"A big one." Said Sa.

"Really big. With bits going into the ground."

"And into the roof. Neeee?" Sa turned to Yu.

"Neeee?" Yu repeated.

Rakka had the feeling that her day was just about to get rather more complicated than she'd anticipated...

**----o**

Slowly, the girl opened her eyes. There was little light, so it wasn't painful, and the adjustment was easier. There was little to see, anyway, just a faint outline of something surrounding her, a container in which she was floating.

She wished she could remember how she came to be here. Her head hurt terribly, and she placed a hand against its side, feeling for something, she wasn't sure what. It felt intact, anyway, although she didn't know why she thought it wouldn't be.

She tried to sigh, but realised she was only feeling fluid pass from her lungs to her mouth, and for a second she thought she was drowning, before realising that she'd probably have drowned by now if she was going to. The sensation was unpleasant, as she tried to breathe, expanding her lungs with more of the fluid: an almost autonomic process of panic rising with the labouring of her muscles to draw in something that shouldn't be there, at least, not like this...

She really wished she could remember how she came to be here. And then she heard voices, from somewhere outside. Too frightened to care, she hugged her legs tight against her, chin close to resting on her knees. She wanted to sleep some more. It was too soon for her to be active, of that she was sure. She was safe here. Safe...

**----o**

Rakka peered through the partly open doorway. To gain access to the room, the twins had to force the door open as its hinges were pretty much rusted shut, and had only just made enough room to slip through. Rakka, somewhat bigger than the pair, wondered if the gap was big enough to accomadate her.

"Well? What do you think?" Yu asked, expectantly. Rakka looked back at them, standing behind her with rather self-satisfied looks on their faces.

"It's... hard to see. It's so dark in there." She turned back to the door. "If only we could open this a little wider. She started to push against it, but it looked as if the door wasn't going to move another inch. The twins joined her.

"We'll help you..."

"...Get this door open."

"It was real hard to open it this far, though."

"Still got splinters in me hands." Sa showed her hands to Rakka, which didn't help one little bit.

"Would the pair of you mind?" She nodded towards the door. The twins shrugged and pushed in underneath her, applying their weight against it. "Alright then", Rakka grunted, "on the count of three. One... Two... Three!"

The three of them heaved against the door, a couple of the panels cracking under the strain. Then there was a crumbling noise, dust falling on top of their heads for a few seconds, followed by a sharp snap, and the door came away from its hinges, crashing to the floor, followed by the three girls who spent the next few seconds lying in a pile, stunned.

"Wow." Sa crawled out from underneath Rakka. "That was real cool. Can we do it again?" Rakka grumbled and stood, brushing dust from the front of her dress. The light colour of it meant that all the ingrained dust showed up like a stain.

"Ahhh... I'll have to wash this, now." She shook her head as Sa helped Yu to her feet. Sighing, she turned to the now open doorway and peered into the gloom. The room itself was quite large, much larger than most rooms in Old Home. "I wonder what they used this room for, originally." She muttered to herself, knowing full well that she'd probably never find out. At least, not in this life. "I wish I'd brought a torch, now. Can't see a damn thing in there."

"It's right down the back." Yu pointed. "Just behind the stacks of crates."

"There was really cool stuff in those crates, too." Sa rubbed her hands together. "All kinds of gadgets and stuff. Can't wait to get that out and see what I can make with them."

"And there are books. Lots and lots of books." Yu sounded hopeful.

"Bugger the books. You can read them, if you want. Probably old textbooks and stuff. This place was an old school, once." Sa patted a disappointed Yu on the back.

"Just because I like books..." Yu sniffed. "I'm not an uncultured swine like some."

Rakka, ignoring their babbling, was about to tiptoe into the room, when Kana, dressed and ready for work, arrived, scratching her head sleepily. "Oi, what's going on here, then?"

"We found a cocoon. A real big one." Sa smiled, holding her fingers up to Kana in a victory salute.

"And a lot of books." Yu mumbled.

"Baka. Kana-oneechan isn't going to be interested in books. Especially textbooks." Sa turned to Yu once more, leaving Kana to peer into the darkened room alongside Rakka, a half-excited look on her face. She knew the twins too well to get too hopeful over some of their more extravagant claims.

"A cocoon? Is this for real?"

"So they say... I was about to go look for myself." Rakka stepped in, but was stopped by Kana, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Here, you'll do yourself a mischief in the dark if you aren't careful." Kana reached into the pocket of her overalls and pulled out a small pen-torch. "Got this at the knick-knack shop on the west side of town. Apparently the Touga had just brought some in from... well, you know." She flicked a switch on the side, illuminating a small space in front of them. The floor of the room was a right mess, with missing ceramic tiles here and there, amidst small holes created by some of the crates toppling down onto the floor. The crates, themselves, were quite numerous, and, from the contents of the broken ones scattered on the floor, were as full of 'treasure' as the twins had reported.

"Awww..." Sa stepped into the room and started rifling through some of the electronic parts that lay, rusting, on the floor. "Look at this stuff... This ain't no good. Won't be able to sell any of... um..."

"So, that's what you had in mind." Yu stood over her sister. "All you're interested in is getting stuff from the townsfolk for as little effort as possible."

"Oi!" Kana clipped Yu across the back of the head. "Where's this cocoon supposed to be?" She turned and watched as Rakka peered behind a stack of crates into the darkness at the back of the room.

"Back there, silly. Where else would it be?" Yu thumbed in the direction before skipping up beside Rakka. "Careful, the crates aren't the only things in here you should be wary of." She reached down and picked something off the floor, lifting it up to show Rakka. It was a spider, still wriggling in her hand. Rakka let out a short cry and fell back onto the floor. "What's wrong? It's only a little spider." And with that, she casually tossed the arachnid aside before receiving another clipping across the back of the head via Kana.

"You know better than to scare people like that." Kana growled.

"Yu got told off." Sa tuned, mischievously. Kana ignored her and helped Rakka to her feet.

"Do we really need this pair in here? If there is a cocoon in here, they'll only get in the way." Kana humphed and gestured around the room. "I don't think I've seen a room so filled with junk. How come nobody has ever been in here, before?"

Rakka shrugged. "I sometimes wonder if the rooms in the Old Home keep moving about, like the place is alive and trying to keep us on its toes."

"Brrrrr..." Kana shivered. "Now there is a great thought for the morning. Anyways, we better find this thing soon, or else the boss is going to give me grief for turning up late. Again." She turned to the twins. "You two wait here. If anyone else shows up, tell them what's going on. You can do that much, can't you?"

"Roger." The twins said in unison, mischievous smiles on their faces. Kana gave them a dubious glance and took Rakka by the arm.

"I'll lead the way through. Be careful where you put your feet."

"Okay." Rakka nodded, and slowly they made their way past the labyrinth of crates, the path made clear by the thin light of Kana's pen-torch. Kana moved the light up the side of the crates.

"The ceiling in here is quite high. A lot higher than most of the rooms."

"Might have been a storeroom to begin with." Rakka suggested, feeling nervous in the gloom. She almost jumped when she heard the crumbling sound... A sound that was quite familiar to her, before the hatching of the twins. Both she and Kana turned, and could see the familiar grey-white hide of a cocoon, partially hidden behind a couple of crate stacks at the far reaches of the room.

"I'm surprised it didn't bowl all of these crates down as it grew." Kana mumbled, before excitedly pushing her way between the stacks, Rakka nervously following her, not quite sure where she was putting her feet now that the light from Kana's torch was a good six feet ahead of her. She put her foot down on something hard and angular and almost tripped, grabbing hold of one of the crates for support. She looked down and saw that it was a scale's weight of some kind, before realising that the front of the crate had come off in her hand.

She was about to put the panel back in place when something inside the crate caught her attention. It looked to be a painting, framed much like the ones Reki used to do, but the brush stroke and lines were definitely not Reki's. She reached in and gently eased the painting out. It wasn't terribly big, but seemed to be the only thing inside the crate.

She studied the painting as best she could in the semi-darkness. The painting was that of an Haibane, probably one who had been a part of Old Home some time in the distant past. In that gloom, she felt a sense of lost time, staring at the figure... So many must have passed through Old Home before her arrival, over who knew how many years. This painting might have been sitting in this crate for hundreds. Considering the state of the room, she wouldn't have put the possibility aside.

Then something about the figure in the painting caught her eye... Or, at the very least, the wings of the figure... The wings were red. Blood red. Although it was difficult to see, she was certain that it simply wasn't age-wear on the painting, nor some trick of the light. The wings of the Haibane were deliberately painted red.

"Rakka? What are you up to?" Kana called from the far end of the room, leaning against the cocoon. "I think we'll be lucky, this time. The shell of the cocoon hasn't quite hardened, yet."

Rakka forced herself to look away from the painting and tucked it underneath her arm, continuing on along the thin path between the crates. Eventually, she came to what appeared to be a deliberately cleared area at the back of the room, where the cocoon was hidden. She approached the cocoon slowly as Kana investigated how much damage had occured to the rear wall.

"That's the problem with our cocoons. They do a hell of a lot of damage wherever they plonk themselves." She muttered as she pointed at the floor. The tiles there were a complete mess: cracked and strewn all over the place. Rakka sighed and shrugged.

"At least we've had offers of help from the town renovators. Apparently news has reached people about the state of this place."

"They shouldn't, really." Kana tutted as she stared at the rear wall. "We're supposed to be looking after ourselves."

"Quite frankly, this place is so dilapidated, now, that I wouldn't be surprised if cocoons started popping up in the basements of the houses of townsfolk, soon. Or however these things are distributed." Rakka turned back to the crates. "We're certainly going to need a bit of help to clear all of this out of the way. Can't have the new feather being born in a dump like this."

"Hmmm... But who?" Kana turned back to Rakka, and saw the painting she was holding. "What's that?"

"Oh, just something I found in one of the crates back there." She held it up for Kana to see. In the torchlight, the features of the Haibane were clearer. She was tall and pale-skinned, with longish light-brown hair and apparently deep scarlet eyes. Almost the same colour as her wings. Kana stepped up to her and took a good look at the painting.

"Oh man, you don't half find creepy things in dark places, do you?" She shook her head. "This has to be artistic licence... There are no Haibane with red wings."

"I dunno. I just found it in the crate. It's strange, though." Rakka's voice went soft. "I feel as if I've seen her before, somewhere."

"Hardly." Kana shrugged. "But yeah, I know what you mean. She does seem... familiar..." She paused for a few moments, then put a hand to her head. "Oh hell, I'll be late if I stay here for much longer..." She looked at Rakka, hopefully. "Are you going to be alright, here on your own?"

"I won't be on my own... I'll still have the twins." She paused for a moment. "That's not really reassuring, though, is it?"

"Hardly. I think I might have to ask someone to help you, clearing this place out." She gestured to the crates. "It's not like when we still had Reki and Nemu around. Even then, I don't think we'd have been able to get this lot shifted. Even worse, where do we shift it all?"

"The rooms next door are empty." Rakka looked hopeful. "I think." She held up a pleading hand to Kana. "Can you please tell Kumiko I'm sorry, I'm not gonna make it, today."

"Better still." Kana smiled wickedly. "You can tell her yourself."

"Eh?"

**----o**

The girl opened her eyes again, hearing the voices disappear into the distance, wherever that distance might have been... Her curiosity had started to get the better of her, and she pushed herself forward in the fluid, pressing herself against the barrier that shielded her from the outside world. It felt strangely fleshy, like the skin of a plant. She pushed her fingers into the flesh, and found that it gave. She scooped some of the substance away and ran it between her fingers.

It was like kneading dough. The consistency was about the same. She went to sniff it before remembering that she probably wouldn't be able to use her sense of smell whilst floating in the life-supporting fluid. All the same, her nose was telling her stories about almonds, or casshews...

She pressed the material back into the space she had made and found it was easy to mould back into shape, which made her think that, whatever she was in, it was probably built around her, or something of that nature. She felt a little scared again, and pushed herself back into the middle of the chamber, hugging herself tightly. Better to stay safe in here. She really didn't want to see anyone right now. She didn't know why, but the thought of coming face to face with someone else terrified her. What if it was... What if it was...

She just couldn't remember. Her headache worsened and she closed her eyes and tried to think of nothing. And she saw feathers, floating behind her eyelids. Bright red feathers...

**END OF PART 1**

**----o**

**DARK DAY FOR ANIME - THE RIGHT DISHONOURABLE MARK A PAGE**

**FEATHER 2.0: 23-24 November 2005**


	2. Part 2: Awakening Painting Ketsueki

**DARK DAY FOR ANIME - THE RIGHT DISHONOURABLE MARK A PAGE**

**Disclaimer: Haibane Renmei is, irrefutably, the product of Yoshitoshi ABe as well as Aureole Secret Factory and Fuji Television. It was produced and aired in 2002. Which makes it an awfully long time since there has been an anime worth watching. **

----o

Silently, he climbed the rise in the middle of the field of wind vanes and looked up at the closest. Its rusting form continued to grind away, completely oblivious to his presence. For as long as he knew, this is how the world worked, and for as long as he cared, this is how it would always work. There was no escape for him. Not anymore.

He pulled out the rolled parchment from his cloak, tempted to open it up and read it. So tempting... The pleasures of being part of others opened up a gaping hole within, and the parchment shook within his hands. Just roll it open and see... what the summons beckoned...

He put the parchment back within his cloak and placed a hand against the metal of the nearest wind vane. The vibrations of the blades' movement, regular and slow within the gentle breeze of the summer day, calmed him. There was no rush, no need to feel pain, no need to be a part of others. Just deliver the parchment and be done with it. Nobody would think about him at all. He would be nothing.

It was, after all, the choice he had made for himself.

----o

**An Haibane Renmei Fanfiction**

**Red Feathers in Old Home**

**(A Girl With Red Wings)**

**by Dark Day For Anime**

**Part 2**

**Awakening - Painting - Ketsueki**

----o

Hikari had always felt uncomfortable with the early morning sunlight. She didn't really know why, but it always made her feel sad. And sad was how she felt that morning, both after waking up and seeing that morning light.

Standing in front of the mirror, she pressed the bridge of her glasses up against her face and mumbled. "You would have to be the ugliest, most stupid, most unlikeable Haibane in existence, you know that? Well, what are you going to do about it? Here's another day to change things, so use it!" And she slapped both sides of her face with her hands, as much psychologically preparing herself for the day as physically.

And so she put on her mask of happiness, brushed down the creases in the front of her blouse and stepped out of her room into the hallway. And heard the commotion. "What on earth..." She frowned, and briskly followed the noise down to the courtyard.

It was full of people, mostly ordinary townsfolk, carting crates out of Old Home. Fairly old, dusty-looking crates, as well. She recognised most of them as being employees of Fujita, the elderly carpenter and renovator. Fujita, a thin, grizzled looking man with his grey hair rapidly receding from his scalp, stood back from his more burly workers and assessed each crate as they went by, directing said worker to different stacks at the far end of the courtyard, depending on how likely it looked like the crate was about to collapse underneath its own weight.

Hikari watched this going on for a full minute before turning to see Rakka, with Kumiko from the Festivals Committee, the House Mother and several other womenfolk placing a wooden barrier around the workmens' activities. Or, more correctly, trying to place a wooden barrier as they herded several of the young feathers out of harm's way. The Twins were standing behind the small crowd of young feathers, looking rather pleased with having alerted their younger companions to current events.

"What's going on?" A soft voice whispered behind Hikari. She turned to Hana as the younger Haibane stepped alongside her. "What are all those people doing?"

"I don't know. I just got here, myself." Hikari smiled at her, shrugging. Despite the fact that Hana had grown to become one of the older feathers of Old Home, close to the same age as Kuu when she had arrived, Hana was anything but a confident and open girl. At least, as she'd grown older, she seemed to have lost a lot of her natural childhood curiosity and had become shy and solemn. Hana took hold of Hikari's sleeve, looking slightly peturbed. "Well..." Hikari took a breath. "...Should we stand around here all day, or find out what is going on?"

Hikari made her way over to where Rakka and Kumiko were now standing, looking on bemusedly as the House Mother rounded up the young feathers for class, whilst the twins did their best to help some of them escape. Hana had remained latched to Hikari's sleeve all the way, flinching at one point, when one of the workers almost dropped one of the crates nearby.

"Honestly." Kumiko, a woman in her early twenties, with shoulder-length auburn hair, thin face and figure, and a rather businesslike demeanour in her suit and dress, crossed her arms and shook her head at Rakka. "I had a feeling you were going to find some excuse to get out of helping with my work, but I didn't think it would be anything like this."

"It's not my fault. Honest." Rakka looked hurt by the comment. "I wanted to help you, really." Kumiko shook her head again and smiled, placing a hand on Rakka's head.

"You take me too seriously, you know that. I like that naivete." She chuckled, eliciting an embarassed smile from the Haibane. Rakka then noticed Hikari and waved at her.

"Ah, there you are. I was wondering what happened to you."

"I overslept." Hikari shrugged, then gestured to the workmen. "What's going on here?"

"The twins found a new cocoon."

"Eh?" Hikari's jaw almost hit the ground. Almost.

----o

She opened her eyes and stared at a floor, descending into a horrible, ruddy distance. She wanted to move, but found that she couldn't. All she could do was stare through eyes smeared with red, as the redness extended towards the solitary light, rectangular in shape. She thought she could see someone there, and tried to call out to them, but her voice would not work, her mouth would not move. She was paralysed, she realised, and what little sensation she could feel was retreating from her extremities.

She tried to call out again, and this time she heard her voice. A thin, pathetic croak, barely audible. The light grew dimmer, and she panicked.

The world changed focus. The redness was gone from her eyes, and she could feel once more. And she was running through a dark place. Running from what, she didn't know, but she wanted to escape whatever it was. Whatever the figure had been in the doorway. The figure wanted to hurt her, she knew this to be true. And so she kept running, unable to see even the slightest detail in what she was running through.

She turned and felt her feet slamming down stairs, and then light as she flew into an open space. There was green to one side, white to the other, and someone stood some distance away from her. Her feet kept moving, towards the figure, and she knew that she must reach them, or it was all going to stop. All time would stop for her, and she would be no more.

She reached out to the figure, whose hands were outstretched. The person wanted her, wanted to hold her in their warm embrace. And she wanted to be there, more than anything she could conceive, she wanted to be there. But those arms seemed so far away, and whatever it was that had been chasing her seemed to be getting ever closer.

She glanced over her shoulder, to see nothing but darkness. Darkness with flying claws of shining metal. "Don't look." A soft voice echoed through her mind. "Keep running. The darkness will never engulf you if you run." And so she did.

And within moments, she felt herself reach the figure, throwing her arms around them, almost tackling them as they flew backwards and off the ground. And she looked up into the face of the figure, its quiet, gentle smile, and watched as they floated away from danger on wings of the deepest red. And she turned to watch the darkness on the ground, writhing in pain as with each beat of those red wings, light spewed forth and killed it. Slowly, surely, the beast was destroyed. It was never, ever, going to hurt her again.

And then she opened her eyes, and found that she was alone once more.

----o

"You know, I don't know whether I should be surprised about this." Hikari put her hands on her hips as they watched the last of the crates being stacked. Kumiko turned to her.

"Really?" She shrugged. "Nothing surprises me when it comes to Haibane any more." She chuckled. "You know, when I was a little girl, one of these cocoons appeared in my bedroom closet."

Hikari opened her eyes widely. "You're kidding?"

"No." Kumiko smiled. "It was a small cocoon, nowhere near as big as the one that is in there. Grew right out of the floor. Mama and Papa weren't happy about it at all, but what can you do?" She looked around as Rakka and several of the womenfolk layed out tables covered in sandwiches and cups of tea, which the workmen, now having finished, eagerly descended upon. Hikari allowed these few moments of silence before tapping Kumiko on the shoulder. "Hmm?" The woman looked at her, questioningly.

"So what happened? With the cocoon, I mean?"

"Oh, it hatched, eventually. A young Haibane girl about my age. My family adopted her for a while. Nobody really knew what to do with her, otherwise. We even asked the Washi whether we should have given her to the other Haibane, but all he said was that she was born in our home, and it would be her choice when to leave."

"That sounds like him." Hikari shrugged. "So what happened to her, in the end?"

"We grew up together, like sisters, in a way. Its why I know so much about Haibane and what happens after they hatch... The sprouting of the wings, the halo, everything... I nursed her all by myself after her wings came out. It taught me a lot." Kumiko's eyes became distant. "She named herself Chigusa. I'm not sure why, but she said that there was a reason. She would never tell us. And we went to school together, which was a riot." She chuckled. "All the other kids were so jealous because I had a Haibane for a sister." Then her expression changed, becoming solemn. "She left us when I was fifteen. I suppose you could say she was about the same age. She became very evasive, and then, one day she was gone. We didn't know what happened, but the Washi told us that she wouldn't be coming back."

"I'm sorry..." Hikari looked at her with concern. "I didn't want you to bring up unpleasant memories."

Kumiko shrugged and wagged a finger. "Ah, you Haibane always bring out the worst in me, honestly. It doesn't matter. I knew she was sad to leave us, and probably wouldn't have if she really had a choice." She reached into the collar of her blouse and pulled out a simple green-turquoise pendant, hanging around her neck on a gold chain. "She gave this to me when I turned thirteen. It's the one memento I have of her time with us. I've always worn it whenever there is something important that I have to do. For some reason, whenever I'm wearing it, I feel more confident."

"Ah, well, that's that done." They turned as Fujita approached them, jotting down notes into a small booklet as he did so. "Yes, the room certainly needs a lot of work done to it. I also took the liberty of checking out some of the other rooms next door, and it appears as if their structural integrity is quite sound. But I wouldn't want to leave this place like this for much longer." He smiled as he pocketed his pen and notebook. "Although I'm yet to check the North Wing. I'm lead to believe that that is in a right state. We might have to seal it off permanently, or even knock most of it down. Would be a shame." He looked around at the Old Home. "Whoever designed and built this place were masters. Even with most of the cement work crumbling and rising salt damp, its still holding itself together pretty well. Almost like the place has a life and soul of its own."

"Maybe it does." Hikari smiled. "I mean, after all, even I didn't know about that storeroom until today. There are parts of the Old Home I haven't checked out in all my time here." She looked around, then frowned. "By the way, have you seen Hana. She was here only a few moments ago."

"I think all the workmen might have scared her off." Kumiko patted Hikari on the shoulder. "Don't worry, she's probably gone back to her room."

----o

Hana peered through the doorway into the storeroom. Now that it had been emptied, of both crates and people, and with the windows cleared of their boardings, the room was nowhere near as gloomy as it had been. Hana gripped the doorframe and stared at the cocoon, nervously. Her curiosity getting the better of her, she crept into the room, avoiding the pitfalls along the way.

She'd never seen a cocoon up close, before. She'd seen them, but she'd never actually been allowed near them. Even if the other Haibane now regarded her as one of the older group, she was quite sure they wouldn't let her come close enough to touch it. At least, not when they were around. And she really wanted to feel the outside of one, just once, just to see what it was like.

She approached to within arm's reach, her right hand out to touch the rough, grey-white surface, when a crashing sound behind her made her jump, pressing herself against the side of the cocoon, looking back. The wooden planks of the window boarding had been rested up against the wall, beside the doorway, and one of the planks had slipped, bringing it and two others alongside it, crashing to the floor. Hana watched as a small cloud of dust filled the air around them, and she put a hand to her chest, trying to calm her heartbeat. She laughed to herself, feeling silly to have been so nervous, when she heard a sound from the cocoon, and felt movement through its hide.

She turned to the cocoon, standing back and placing her hands against it, trying to feel for any more signs of life. There was another noise, and, more intently, she placed her ear up against it, listening.

----o

She wanted to close her eyes, again, but there was now light filtering through to the inside of her sanctuary. And she was sure, so sure, that there was someone outside, now, listening to her. She didn't know how, but she knew they were there. A small, unobtrusive presence... As nervous of her as she was of it.

"Why don't you find out?" The calm voice said to her. The voice of the figure with the red wings. "Find out who they are, Ketsueki. Find out everything about them. You want to know."

"I'm frightened." She could hear her mind's voice say, a vocalisation of her thoughts. "What if they want to hurt me?"

"And what if they don't?" The question hung in her mind for several moments. She didn't know what to do, and recoiled away from where she felt the presence was. "Are you such a coward that you would be frightened by shadows, Ketsueki?" The voice chided, but gently so.

"Ketsueki?" She placed her hands against her ears. "I... I..."

"Hello?" The voice was soft and small. Different from the voice of the figure. More unsure of itself. "Hello, can you hear me?" She turned to where the presence was and stared. The outside of her sanctuary had become translucent, as if losing its integrity, and she could see the shadow of a figure, cast across the side. Controlling her fear, she floated towards the figure, reaching out to touch the shell...

----o

Old Home stood before him, now. He'd been here before, of course. He'd seen its dilapidated, yet somehow welcoming, appearance. He'd seen many of the Haibane who had lived there, though rarely those whom resided today.

There seemed to be a lot of activity going on within, and he wondered if he should investigate. He shook the notion from his mind and entered the archway that lead to the courtyard. As quickly and as quietly as possible, he stopped by the notice board and unravelled the parchment. And he paused.

The words on the parchment seemed to swim before his eyes. Words not meant for him to read, almost encoded in a strange red ink. For a second he harboured delusions that the ink was blood, still fresh enough to smell. His stomach turned and he placed a hand against the mask that covered his face. The stench of blood always made him feel ill... But it couldn't be blood... Why would they write a summons to the Haibane in blood? It had to be ink of some sort, mixed in with some concoction that had power...

The smell was gone in a moment, almost as if it had never been there. Quickly, he pulled a pin from the notice board and placed the summons on a portion of the board that was as prominent as possible. He stood for a few moments, watching the bottom edge of the summons flutter gently in the wind, then turned and walked away.

And then he paused, turned and looked back at the notice board. A memory, clouded and indistinct, came to him. He placed a hand on his forehead and tried to recall the fragment that had passed along the edges of his mind's eye. A feather? A red feather? He seemed to remember something happening in the past, something to do with red feathers... But the memory was gone, suppressed in a blinding headache that left him dazed. He staggered away from the Old Home, gradually regaining his composure as he did so. Better not to think, or to involve yourself, in the affairs of the Haibane.

So why had the Washi sent him? He, in particular?

----o

"Hello? Can you hear me?" Said the voice from outside her sanctuary. "Are you okay in there?"

She recoiled. The shadow of the figure seemed to mirror the shadow of her dreams. She pushed herself back against the far wall of the sanctuary and held herself.

She had to run.

Had to get away.

It was going to hurt her again.

A great onrush of darkness filled her.

She opened her mouth to speak. To shout. To scream.

A swirl of fluid was all that emerged. She was trapped. This wasn't a sanctuary... This was a pit where she was trapped and would be killed. She didn't want to be here didn't want to be here didn't want to be here...

She gripped the sides of her head as her world started to tumble. The pain was returning. Agonising pain, searing through her skull until she was no longer thinking, just feeling the torture and the torment.

This place was surely hell.

Her fingers pressed deep into her flesh. Any harder and she would have started to self-mutilate. She almost wanted to do that, now. And then, within the fluid that was sustaining her, she saw smears of red. Blood, leaking from the wound. The wound that the darkness had given her. And the red was blurring her vision. She was trapped, and there was no escape. Not from the darkness... Because the darkness was going to follow her, wherever she went, and the darkness could not be sated by herself, alone...

----o

"So, are we having fun, yet?" Rakka smiled as she stepped up beside Kumiko. "Would you like to be the first one to see what is inside those crates. Might be something worth selling at the Markets Festival." She chuckled and held up the painting, which she had covered in a cloth. "Although I probably beat you to it, by accident."

"Really... You don't have to give away everything that belongs to you." Kumiko crossed her arms, turning from Rakka to Hikari and back. "You Haibane... Honestly. You're always like this."

"Just say it's our way of thanking you for all the work you've put in for us." Rakka looked down at the painting. "Though I'm sure there aren't many people who would shell out something for this."

"What is it?" Hikari stepped up alongside Rakka as the other Haibane started to unfold the cloth.

"It's a painting. Too weird and spooky to sell. I'll probably put it amongst Reki's collection when we're done here." She showed the painting to Hikari, and then to Kumiko, who raised an eyebrow.

"Red wings, eh? I seem to remember a story about that. An old wives tale, so to speak." She placed a finger on the painting, running it down lengthwise to feel the grain of the strokes. "Weird." She looked up at both Rakka and Hikari. "It's almost smooth, like there is no paint there at all. And its kind of warm."

"Well, I have been holding it under my arm for the last few minutes." Rakka chuckled.

"No, not that. When I touched it, I could feel something warm running up my finger and into my arm." She looked at the hand. "It felt kind of nice, really." She pointed at the figure in the picture. "That is what one would call an Akabane. They usually look alike. Blond hair, red eyes, red wings and..." She pointed to the halo above the head, which seemed white from some angles, and red from others. "...And a halo that shimmers white and red. Was this painting in the storeroom you just emptied?"

"Umm..." Rakka nodded. Kumiko turned back to the wing of Old Home where the cocoon was located.

"I guess it means nothing. It might just be a coicidence."

There was a crashing sound nearby, and all three turned. Fujita had returned from an inspection of the food and drink tables, with cups of tea in slightly battered metal mugs for all of them, when he had seen the picture. The tea had splashed all over his shoes and trouser cuffs, but he seemed not to notice. "That... Where did you get..." He suddenly turned and looked around at the crates. "That room. You found it in that room, didn't you?"

"Umm, yeah..." Rakka had shrunk, nervously. Hikari placed a hand on her shoulder as Kumiko remonstrated with Fujita. His performance had created a small audience from the workmen and womenfolk.

"Fujita, what is wrong with you? You're scaring Rakka." She put her hands on her hips as Fujita's nerve seemed to return.

"I'm... I'm sorry... It's just that..." He shook his head. "No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you." He looked down at his feet. "Oh, look at what I've done. I'll have to clean this all up and..."

Now there was a huge crashing sound from within Old Home, and a cry of surprise and fear. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at each other.

"Hana..." Hikari, the first to react, brushed past Kumiko, running across the courtyard to the entrance of the wing where the cocoon was located. "That was Hana!" She shouted back to them, before they followed...

----o

There was fluid running freely across the floor, from the doorway to the storeroom. Hikari felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her belly as Rakka ran into the back of her, still clutching the painting.

"This is bad. This is really bad." Rakka said, breathlessly. "It's too soon. The cocoon hadn't hardened properly, yet. It's far too soon."

Hikari carefully splashed across to the doorway... the fluid had a soapy texture, which lead to Rakka, Kumiko, Fujita, the Twins and a few others slipping and sliding as they tried to follow her.

Within the room, the cocoon had broken wide open, almost as if it had exploded, rather than cracked open by its inhabitant. On her knees, near the broken exit of the cocoon, soaked in the fluid, was Hana, holding an older girl in her arms. The girl had long black hair, and was exceedingly thin, as if she hadn't been eating properly. She was covered in the simple white smock that all Haibane wore in the cocoon.

Hana looked up, guiltily, clutching the girl tightly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do it. Really..." She looked as if she were about to cry. Hikari and Kumiko ran over to her and helped her to her feet as Rakka took the cloth that had covered the painting and placed it behind the newborn's head.

"What happened?" Hikari asked Hana, gently, as curious onlookers watched the Twins clamber into the remains of the cocoon, slipping and sliding along its curved-bowl base.

"It sounded like she was in pain. I could hear it." Hana's eyes filled with tears. "I could hear her... She wanted to escape from there, so I pressed against the side of the cocoon. It was soft, but it wouldn't break. And then... And then..." She shivered and pressed herself against Hikari. "It exploded. It scared me. The next thing I knew, I was holding her. I don't know why. I don't know anything."

Hikari swallowed as Hana started to go limp, then, with all her effort, turned and lifted the girl onto her back, feeling uncomfortable as the girl pressed against her wings. She then stood and started to carry her from the storeroom, helped along by Fujita and another workman. Kumiko knelt beside Rakka, who was brushing the long black hair away from the face of the newborn.

"How is she?"

"I'm not sure. I think she's awake, but..." Rakka held up her hand. There were smears of blood on it. "I don't know. I think she's been hurt, somehow, but I can't find a wound or a scratch."

Kumiko leaned forward and carefully worked through the hairline of the newborn. "It doesn't look like she's been scratched, or anything. It might be because of her hatching early." She looked up at the shell, where the Twins were playing. Until Sa put her foot through the base, showing just how fragile the shell still was. Kumiko snapped at them, telling them to get out before they received the whipping of their lives. Unsurprisingly, both vacated the storeroom fairly quickly.

----o

The darkness was receding once more. But it was there, lingering at the back of her mind, waiting for its chance to be set free. And now there was light. True light. She could feel warmth spreading through her. She was safe. Perhaps. At least for the time being.

"Does it not feel better to be free of the fear?" The soft voice of the red-winged figure cooed in her mind. "I am always here to protect you. Nothing shall happen as long as you call for me. As long as you allow me into your life. The darkness shall never harm you."

She opened her eyes and looked up into the face of the figure. Her golden hair cascading around a face, marked with two shining rubies for eyes. Those eyes radiated a warmth that she found irresistable. She reached up to touch the face. "Do you promise? Do you promise to always protect me?" She whispered, gently, her voice still thin and reedy.

"Do you doubt me?" The figure sounded somewhat disappointed.

"No... No, that's not what I mean. I... Please don't go away. Please stay with me..." She brushed the figure's cheek. "The darkness is still out there, and it will never go away."

"The darkness fears me, more than anything. If it were to chase you here, I will destroy it, with my own hands. Wait, and you shall see..."

And the figure's face shifted and changed, her features becoming clearer. And, eventually, before her was the face of a girl some four years her senior, with light brown/auburn hair, hanging messily and wavily underneath a glowing blue-white halo. A gentle face. Kind. She continued to brush the cheek of the person, lovingly. "Please don't ever go away." She whispered, and realised she could feel the coolness of air passing down her windpipe.

"I... I'll try..." The girl said, then looked over at another figure, that of an older woman, dressed in rather severe clothes (although somewhat messed up at the moment). She felt damp and looked down at the floor, seeing a fine film of the liquid that she had been floating in not so long ago. She then looked up at the cocoon, now broken and forlorn.

"I escaped. I broke out of there. I'm not trapped in the shell anymore." She closed her eyes as her hand dropped from the girl's face. "Not trapped anymore..."

"We should take her to the guestroom." The girl said to the woman. We need to get her a change of clothes... and wash her down. Now that she is out, things are going to happen pretty quickly."

"Right." The woman said, and she stood clapping her hands together. "Everyone, out of the way. We're going to need a couple of burly men to carry this girl. Get something that could be used as a stretcher."

She opened her eyes again and looked over her protector's shoulder. She wanted to reach up and touch the wings there. Only the wings weren't red, as she had been expecting. A clean, charcoal grey, like the wings of a wild pigeon. For a moment she was confused, and frowned. "You... Your wings..."

The girl looked back at her wings, then smiled at her. "Nice, aren't they? You'll have some of your own, soon." The girl gently brushed her face. "Don't talk or move so much. Right now, what you need is rest. Sleep. For the time being, I'll take care of you."

The girl's soothing voice chased away the last vestiges of the darkness that hung around the edges of her consciousness. She smiled and nodded. "Can I ask you one thing?"

"Anything."

"What is your name? I must know. After everything, I must know..."

"My name is Rakka."

"Rak...ka." She allowed the word to roll off her tongue and into her memory. "It is nice to meet you, Rakka. I am... I am..."

"Shhhh..." Rakka hushed her. "Not now. There is much we need to talk about. But not now."

"Much we need to talk about... Yes. Much I need to talk with you about, Rakka. I am... I am... Ketsueki."

"Eh?" Rakka stared at her, but she had fallen asleep. "Ketsueki? Ketsueki, as in...?" She frowned, then looked at the bloodstain on her fingers. "Ketsueki..." She whispered. "The blooded one..."

"The blooded one is falling into your arms, only to be let go." Reki's voice echoed through her mind. The blooded one was now in her arms. Why should she let her go?

Why should she?

----o

He looked back at the Old Home, having placed some distance between himself and it. He could feel the tear in the fabric of Glie that occurred with the arrival of every new feather. This one was a strong, almost irrepairable tear... And so he turned to the Western Woods, and watched, and waited.

In summer, the wall that surrounded Glie was strong. But even the most determined evil was capable of breaching its defences. It was only a matter of time, especially for an evil a patient as this...

**END OF PART 2**

----o

**DARK DAY FOR ANIME - THE RIGHT DISHONOURABLE MARK A PAGE**

**FEATHER 2.0: 24 November 2005**


	3. Part 3: Time Summons Darkness

**DARK DAY FOR ANIME - THE RIGHT DISHONOURABLE MARK A PAGE**

**Disclaimer: Haibane Renmei is, irrefutably, the product of Yoshitoshi ABe as well as Aureole Secret Factory and Fuji Television. It was produced and aired in 2002. Which makes it an awfully long time since there has been an anime worth watching. **

----o

Calmly and gently, their hand guided them to achieving what they'd hoped from them. Yet still, so many had failed. And they cried, because they so often could feel the failing from the beginning. So why did they keep trying? Why? What was the point? Perhaps they would have been better had they not tried at all...

But they were never one to give up. That darkness that skirted even the edges of their own mind could be banished, if one would allow it. But sometimes, that darkness was not satisfied with having their children consume themselves, and came searching for them where it was not its place to do so.

And so they created one that would banish the darkness for those children hunted by it. But first, they needed to ask for help...

----o

Ketsueki had always felt that, as long as she kept looking for happiness, she would find it. Not that she could remember anything, now, about that search, but it seemed to her that, if she had found true happiness, then the darkness that had pursued her through most of her life would go away and leave her alone. Forever. But still, no matter what she had done, the darkness kept chasing, until one day it had caught her.

It wasn't here now, though. Not now that Rakka was here. Rakka was going to help her. Rakka had saved her in her dreams and Rakka would protect her here. That must mean that Rakka was the happiness she had been searching for, ever since... She couldn't remember. But there was a warmth whenever she thought of the auburn-haired angel who had held her when she had emerged from that prison. When she had touched her face, she'd known that there would be no return of the darkness. No return, ever, as long as Rakka was by her side.

And when she opened her eyes, for the first time since that moment, she found she was in an unfamiliar room, lying on an unfamiliar bed, wearing unfamiliar clothes. And she was completely alone. Rakka wasn't there at all.

Alone.

----o

**An Haibane Renmei Fanfiction**

**Red Feathers in Old Home**

**(A Girl With Red Wings)**

**by Dark Day For Anime**

**Part 3**

**Time - Summons - Darkness**

----o

"Are you sure that is what it is?" Hikari whispered as she brushed down the second set of clothes she had chosen for herself that day. Having the first set completely drenched in fluid from the cocoon, they were now being washed, hopefully, by the twins, who'd promised to have everyone's dirty clothes on the line and dry by mid-afternoon. Hikari was sure that it would be a mistake to rely on them for anything, but there wasn't really much of choice as they'd basically snatched the things from people, sometimes before the person had a chance to take them off themselves.

Of course, it had been the twins who had found the message posted to the board in the archway at the front of Old Home. They'd shown just about everyone the message with the "swirly letters" before even thinking of handing it to someone who, just possibly, might live in Old Home and, therefore, might actually be the recipient of the message. Hikari couldn't make head nor tails of it, the letters being every bit as weirdly swirling as the twins had described... A kind of red script whose characters never sat still on the page for long enough for her to be able to read them... A kind of reactive dyslexia, where as soon as she thought she recognised part of a character, it shifted and changed to something else.

But Rakka seemed to know exactly what was written. "Yes, a summons to the Temple from the Washi, himself." She swallowed, the note quivering in her hands. "But I'm there, most days. He doesn't have to summon me like this. Not with a note like this."

"What does it say?" Hikari placed a hand on Rakka's arm, trying to calm her. Obviously, whatever was written on the note had made her nervous.

"Well, it says, ahem, 'Haibane Rakka, oub sno ebekos eertwond ba kob...'".

"Alright, alright. That's enough. I don't think this message is meant for anyone but yourself." Hikari shook her head. Even hearing the words, as garbled as they were, had made her head hurt.

"What?" Rakka frowned at her. "Don't you want to hear what it has to say?"

"Yes, it's just that... I don't think it is likely you'll be able to relay the message, even if you want to."

"I don't get what you mean."

"I do." They both turned to where Kumiko was finishing up brushing the newborn Ketsu's hair, after it had been washed and dried. She was lying the girl back, gently, on the bed in the common room. "The message was coming out of your mouth as garbled as it was on the paper. I guess that means it's protected by means more than a simple mixture of compounds in the ink." She stared down at the face of the newborn, a wistful expression on her face as she pulled the bedsheets across her front. "You know, she even looks a bit like Chigusa..." She whispered, then snapped from her reverie and turned back to the other Haibane. "Well, I think you'll be too busy to do anything else today, Rakka. I might as well go back to town and get busy. Plans for the festival are behind as they are." She stepped up to Rakka and planted a hand firmly on her shoulder. "You really know how to get out of work, don't you? Honestly, after all the careful planning..."

Rakka laughed nervously with Kumiko before the woman said her goodbyes and left them on their own. Even before her footsteps had faded, there was another knock on the door.

"Come." Hikari sat down on the edge of the bed as the door opened slightly, Fujita peering in.

"Well everything's done, now. I'll send my lads packing. We've still got the job on the Hanazaki's house to finish off by the end of the day, and with this weather there ain't no excuse for slacking off." He chuckled. "Anyways, I'll be back tomorrow with Kristas and Jones. They'll check out the state of the wiring in this place. There isn't much, but it would be bad if this place were to turn into a firetrap."

"Thanks for this." Rakka said as she rolled up the message, momentarily glancing at the table, where the painting was sitting, now wrapped up in a much nicer cloth than the previous one that she'd used earlier. Fujita stepped in a short distance, following her glance, as if he'd been drawn into the room by the object. Rakka and Hikari watched as he stared at it, intently.

"You know..." He began, then shook his head. "Sorry, just zoning out. It doesn't matter. Anyway, see you later." He bowed slightly and stepped back out of the common room, closing the door behind him. Hikari waited until his own footsteps disappeared before turning to Rakka, who'd moved to the edge of the table, emulating Fujita's intent on the painting.

"He was very strange, earlier, when he saw that." She watched Rakka as the Haibane lifted the painting from the table and tucked it under her right arm, turning to Hikari as she did so. "He almost looked scared."

"I noticed." Rakka responded, quietly.

"You know, I don't think it would be a good thing if we were to keep that hanging around where everyone can see it. I mean, those eyes and wings on the girl... It could freak the little ones out."

"That's okay. I'm putting it in Reki's room. That way nobody will have to see it. Unless they go in there, of course, and why would anyone want to..."

A moment's uncomfortable silence passed between them, before Rakka started towards the door. Hikari stood, putting out a hand. "Wait... Are you going to go to the temple right now?"

"That's... my intention. Better to get this over and done with as soon as possible." Rakka kept her expression turned from Hikari before she opened the door. "I mean, it couldn't be anything bad, could it?" And with that, she left Hikari on her own with Ketsu, stopping only once she was sure she was alone. She unrolled the parchment of the notice and read its words.

HAIBANE RAKKA,

YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED TO THE TEMPLE OF THE HAIBANE RENMEI TO DISCUSS THE ARRIVAL OF OUR NEW FEATHER. PLEASE BRING THE PAINTING WITH YOU, FOR THERE IS MUCH TO TELL YOU BEFORE SHE IS TO TAKE THE HALO THAT REPRESENTS HER PLACE AMONGST US.

The message had been signed with the seal of the Washi.

How did he know about the painting? There had been much ruckus in town because of the discovery of the cocoon, thanks to Kumiko, so that he would know about Ketsu's arrival was not surprising, but the painting? Unless Kana had mentioned something, and word had got around... But that didn't seem very likely.

She rolled up the parchment again and tucked the painting underneath her arm more tightly. It was going to be a long walk to the temple. Good thing the weather was so kind...

----o

Fujita's small workvan chugged slowly along the road between Old Home and the township. With one arm leaning on the window ledge, he took in the warm, clean breeze that wafted through into the cabin. Well, clean until his little can belched smoke into it. It was amazing the vehicle worked half the time: it was one of the rare motor vehicles in Glie, built outside the wall, of course, but nobody knew how or by whom. But it was a necessity in his job, and he'd gained special permission to use it. However, it was almost as old as he was, and like himself, it was beginning to show its age.

Leaning back in his seat, he glanced momentarily out of the window, and spied a figure, standing atop a small rise amongst the windvanes near Windy Hill. He couldn't see who it was; they were covered in robes (one of the Haibane Renmei?), but the figure seemed to be watching him. It unnerved him and his gaze returned to the road. He'd never made waves with those who were in control of Glie, and, as far as he was concerned, the further he was from potential trouble, the better.

He rubbed his chest, feeling a slight pain.

----o

"Clothes line, clothes line..." Chorused the twins as they almost ran through Rakka in the corridor, carrying baskets of freshly washed clothes with them. Rakka chided them for not paying attention to where they were going, but that seemed a one-way path to an endless conversation about the merits of Rakka's turn of phrase, a common game-playing the twins indulged in, never allowing their quarry to get a word in, edgewise, so she let them go on their way.

Eventually, she stepped out into the courtyard, now empty of people in the noon sunlight. She stared at the crates at the far end, then looked down at the covered painting underneath her arm once more. She wondered if there were any other odd surprises amongst the collection, but decided that that was pretty unlikely. After all, she hadn't been summoned with anything else in mind, and it wasn't like that they were going to find the bones of a Haibane in any of the crates, or something like that.

At least, she hoped not.

She turned and made her way through the arch, pausing to flip her nameplate next to the noticeboard, then out into the fields beyond. The air was practically filled with the dry-fresh smells of a summer day, and the bugs that went with it. About 100 meters from Old Home, she was buzzed by a swarm of flies, and spent the next minute or so swatting them away before they decided to annoy something else. Even the brightest of days had its downsides.

Continuing, she turned away from the road that lead to town and started across the fields, towards the Temple. Despite her tension at being summoned, it was hard not to feel the brightness of the day... The sunlight cast down from a clear, blue sky, warming her to her bones. As she made her way up a small rise of grass, she paused and brushed her hair from her eyes, staring up into the deep blue of the sky. Right at that moment, she felt she could cast her name away and fly. The wings on her back twitched, reflecting her desire. She looked downwards, at the wall that surrounded Glie, then closed her eyes, lifting her arms out, painting held tenuously in one hand, and imagined what it would be like to take off over that wall... And fly on forever. On a day like this, she had no fear of doing just that.

She heard footsteps, and opened her eyes. Quickly clutching the painting to her, she looked around, and saw one of the Renmei from the temple standing nearby, watching her. She swallowed and started to move on, glancing back to see if they were following. He did not, but continued to watch as she disappeared out of his sight.

The moment was gone for Rakka, as she entered a small glade through which the river, that lead to the temple, ran. There was something strange about this day, and for Rakka strange things only meant problems...

----o

He watched as the Haibane, Rakka, left his presence, practically running from him. He did not blame her. The way he was now frightened even himself. Not that he could have calmed her with soothing words. There were no words for him to say, to anyone, anymore. Death might have been preferable to what he was forced to endure, but what was the point of worrying about it, now? The darkness had claimed him as its victim, and there was nothing anyone could have done to stop it. Just like there was nothing anyone could do to stop it now...

He should return to the temple. But he couldn't. Something was holding him back. He turned, once more, to the Western Woods, and the wall beyond. And he came to a decision.

----o

Rakka had been to the Temple on more days than she hadn't since she'd arrived in Glie. Outside the gate, one the the Renmei acolytes was standing, as always, as if his only purpose was to wait for those who would approach, apparently staring into space. After approaching him, he presented Rakka with the bells of communication on her wings and wrists, and took the painting from her. The gate opened, as if on cue, and they both stepped into the courtyard glade beyond.

It was almost a full minute of walking through the silence of the glade, punctuated by the soft tinkling of Rakka's bells, that the acolyte stopped and motioned her to do the same. Rakka was used to the fact that, sometimes, the Washi wouldn't always keep up his appointments, especially at his age (though she had no idea how old the Washi really was), but this time, the waiting became almost painful. She was moving about on her feet to keep up the circulation and making as thorough an inspection of the glade as she'd ever had, with nothing else to distract her.

Eventually the old man came into sight, walking along the main path slowly, his winged cane supporting his unsteady form. To Rakka, he looked older and unsteadier than he had even only 48 hours ago, when she had last seen him. For a moment, it appeared as if he was going to stumble, and she stepped forward in a reflex to help him. The acolyte put out a hand that blocked her path, and the Washi paused, holding the top of his cane with both hands, as if regaining composure.

He lifted his masked face and considered Rakka a moment. "So, you have come, Haibane Rakka. And most prompt, if I must say so." His gravelly voice changed pitch slightly, as if he'd lost some control over his vocal chords. "There is no need to help this old man. When the time comes for me to need such help, a quick tour of the grounds is not something that I would consider. Though it is good that you feel it within yourself to lend another a hand." He chuckled and waved at her to follow him.

They made their way, very slowly, through the glade to a rock that was half-buried at one edge of the temple, where the Washi sat down and considered her. The acolyte, who had followed them silently, lifted the painting, offering it to him.

Taking it, he unwrapped the cloth, peeling away the layers with a deliberate slowness that wasn't due to his age. There was a trepidation about what he was going to find, and indeed, upon seeing the figure of the Akabane in the painting, he sighed and shook his head, lowering it to his lap and considering Rakka once more.

"This painting is one you found in a storeroom, is that not correct?"

Yes. The bell jingled softly.

"Hmmm..." The Washi placed a hand to his chin and thought. "It has been a long time since I last saw this. Back then, it was being stored in a small gallery basement in the town. After what happened then, it was decided that it should be left close to the Haibane. The people of the town didn't want it near them."

"Uh..." Rakka caught herself before she spoke. The Washi looked up at her.

"You are allowed to speak."

"Uh... I was... going to ask... Who is the picture of?"

"Hmmmm." The Washi didn't look pleased with the question, but Rakka decided to press the issue.

"I understand that it is an Akabane. Kumiko told me as much. I mean, it is obvious, really. The wings are red. But what is an Akabane? What makes them different to the Haibane? And just what is it about the Akabane in that painting that makes you react this way?"

"Very good questions." The Washi harrumphed, clearing his throat, as much to give himself a little time to consider what to say. "Well, I cannot answer you as to what an Akabane is, in terms of what makes them different to Haibane, as there is only one, or there only ever has been one, in existence as far as I know. At least, only one that has involved themselves in the affairs of Glie." He held up the painting. "The Akabane Akai. There is no other name for her, and she has been reborn in Glie, to my knowledge, at least eight times."

"Reborn in Glie?" Rakka swallowed. "Is it possible to keep returning to Glie like that?"

"No." The Washi waved a hand at Rakka, cutting off the question. "Nobody visits Glie more than once. Nobody, other than Akai. But then, Akai has never had a Day of Flight, either. The last time she was here was within my memory. It is why the painting was placed in Old Home. When Akai is born, great dangers appear in Glie, for the townspeople and for the Haibane. Or, more or less, she is born because of those dangers. And her return is presaged by the arrival of a Haibane in close proximity to this painting." His finger tapped the top of the picture frame. "Which leads us to the unfortunate Haibane in question. I have heard what happened earlier today... That the Haibane was practically blown from her cocoon, like an explosion."

"I'm not sure if I would put it that way, but the birth was premature. The cocoon hadn't quite hardened and dried properly." Rakka looked down at the figure in the painting. "So you believe that this... Akai... is going to return to Glie soon?"

"If I were a betting man, which I am not, I would have to say that the odds are in our favour. So to speak." He chuckled drily. "Come, sit down, Haibane Rakka, and I shall tell you what happened the last time Akai appeared." He gestured to a soft patch of grass, and Rakka followed his direction. He then handed her back the painting and waved the acolyte away, who promptly withdrew. "Now then, where should I start? Ah yes... One day, the curator of the town gallery discovered a cocoon in the gallery's basement storeroom..."

----o

There was a strong force pushing against him as he entered the small clearing that existed between the Western Woods and the wall. Here, the wall was at its most imposing, its most powerful and its most dangerous. He knew the feeling well... He'd been here before, and had seen a sight nobody else in Glie had seen. A sight nobody in Glie would ever hope to see. In fact, at this very spot. He walked up to the wall, passing by engraved stones that might, once, have been monuments, or shrines. Without touching it, he could feel the waves that pounded against the wall on the other side. It did not surprise him.

It wasn't often that the wall was attacked like this, the last time being many years ago, an entire lifetime for him. Back then, the monster that wanted into Glie was given its chance, and it did much damage, for but a short space of time, before it was destroyed. But that damage was great, too great for him...

He quivered for a moment, remembering those events. Why should this be happening again? Wasn't it destroyed the first time? Was this monster indestructable? Was it reborn outside the wall as its nemesis was reborn within, in an eternal cycle? He fell to his knees and clenched his fists. He had to give the newborn time... Time he wasn't given.

He opened his hands and stared at them, then slowly started to unwrap the cloth that entwined them, like bandages, revealing the pale flesh underneath. Even before he became... what he was today, his body was withering, pale and flaccid. The darkness did that to you, scarring you deep inside so that it showed out.

He reached into his robes and pulled out a blade, engraved with words that, only now, did he understand. The newborn had to be given time, and there was only one way he could give them that time. Slowly, he planted the blade against the flesh of his left wrist...

----o

"And what happened to Fune?" Rakka swallowed. "Did he achieve his Day of Flight?"

"No." The Washi's single word answer almost seemed underlined with a complexity of emotions. "Fune had been hurt deeply by the darkness. Far too deeply. Before Akai was called, his wings had been cut by a force outside of him."

"That... that isn't fair. If he was not caught in the circle of sin, why should he be made to suffer?"

"Hmmm." The Washi nodded. "But that is what happened. You see, the circle of sin, itself, is a self-generating, self-perpetuating artifact of karma. It is not merely a concept. It exists. It is out there, somewhere, as ethereal as we are. A maelstrom given form and energy by those who seek refuge within it. And as you know, misery loves company."

Rakka almost fell over. "You mean to say the darkness is little more than the will of sin, given flesh? And this hunts those that pass into Glie?"

"Only every so often. It is the conceit of the darkness to believe that souls are merely there for it to prey on. But then, it requires the conceit of another to give it form. Someone from outside the wall. Someone whose will is trying to chase the Haibane into Glie. Do you remember, the crows?"

Rakka frowned, then nodded, understanding. "The crows were the will of someone I knew from the other side of the wall. But..." She paused, thinking. "But their feelings weren't hostile. They were anything but."

"And thus they were able to pass into Glie. Glie is a sanctuary, from the evils that exist outside." The Washi went silent for a moment, then held up a hand. "There is something happening, right now... No." He stood, so quickly that he lost balance. Rakka caught him before he fell to the ground.

"What... What is it? What happened?"

"That fool. That little fool. Did he think I sent him out for this purpose?" His voice was rasping, as if he only had half the energy from moments before. Rakka looked at him worriedly as the acolyte returned, summoned in a manner that Rakka could not understand. The elderly Washi was helped to his feet and handed his cane. Rakka also stood, replacing two of the bells which had been knocked from her. "I am sorry, Haibane Rakka. There are affairs that we must attend to. I was hoping that I could speak to you further about the newborn... Ketsueki?"

Rakka nodded. "That is what she called herself."

"A premonition dream in the cocoon." The Washi sounded tired. "You must look after Haibane Ketsueki, as if your life depended upon it, for as long as you are able to."

"As long as I'm able to?" Rakka blinked. But the Washi did not answer. He dismissed her and moved on with the acolyte, leaving her alone in the glade, with a feeling inside her heart that she wasn't expecting.

Not now, anyway.

----o

The three acolytes approached the wall beyond the Western Woods, and found what they were expecting to find. It was a miracle that their brother was even alive. He had spread so much of his blood across the wall that it was a miracle that there was any left.

They reached down and dressed his wounds, which were quite deep, and carried him away from his efforts. And all this time, in the first words he had said for many years, he begged them to leave him to die there.

It was what it wanted.

----o

Afternoon was starting to wear down as Rakka returned to Old Home. The shadows were lengthening, and the brightness of the day seemed to have descended into starkly contrasting hues of light and dark, a veritable chiaroscuro that changed with her every feeling. As she stepped into the archway, she was sure something bad had already happened. She didn't know how she knew this... Something on the wind, carried to her during her peregrinations across the fields. Absent-mindedly she reached out to turn her nameplate, and felt it cold beneath her fingers.

She let it go and watched it drop to the ground, falling with the 'out' side face upwards. She continued to stare at it as someone approached her.

"Oneesan?" The gentle voice brought her out of her reverie, and she turned as Hana picked the nameplate from the ground, replacing it on its hook, 'in' side face outwards. She turned to Rakka and looked at her with concern. "Are you okay, oneesan? You seem pale."

"I'm okay." Rakka chuckled with emotions she didn't feel. "I'm just tired. It's a long walk to and from the Temple." She patted Hana on the head. "How are you feeling, after this morning?"

"I'm a lot better. Please don't pat me on the head like that. I'm not a little kid, anymore."

Rakka withdrew her hand, still smiling. "If you say so."

"Moooouuu. You and the others are always treating me like I'm one of the little ones. Even the twins do it."

"Sorry, sorry. We're just not used to your being so, well, big." She put a hand behind Hana and guided her back into the courtyard. "In my mind, you're still a kid."

"I can see I'm going to get this until I'm taller than all of you." Hana pouted.

"Anyways, how is Ketsueki?"

"The new girl?" Hana scratched her head and shrugged. "I was looking after her not long ago. The twins said they'd do it, but Hikari couldn't find them when it came time to change shifts."

"That'd be right." Rakka shrugged. "They have the attention span of gnats."

"They did get the washing done. They even ironed everything."

"Our clothes have probably shrunk in the wash." Rakka sighed as they stepped through the main doorway into the building and made their way towards the common room.

"You know, she has pretty hair. Long and black." Hana said, quietly, pressing her hands together nervously. "I wish I had hair like that. It looks just like Reki's."

"It does a bit." Rakka mused. "I bet she'll boss us all around like Reki used to, as well."

"Reki wasn't so bad. I really miss her." Hana turned to Rakka. "I still don't understand the Day of Flight. It seems so unfair for us to have to leave everyone behind. I really don't want to go."

"Then you probably won't go. At least, not until you feel it is time."

"That won't ever happen. I want to stay here, with you and everyone else."

Rakka swallowed, trying to control herself. "Everything changes, Hana. Even you. One day, you'll feel the desire to move on. You won't even know when it is going to happen... It's just there... The desire to... fly away."

"Oneesan?" Hana tugged at Rakka's sleeve as they came to a halt a short distance from the common room. "Are you alright?"

Rakka wiped her eyes. "Mmmm... Oh, it's nothing. Don't worry about me. I was just thinking of Reki. When you mentioned her, I..."

"Moooouuuu... That pair! I'm going to brain them when I find them." Hikari said as she approached them from behind. They turned to see her lugging a box of kitchen implements.

"What's that?" Rakka asked, thanking Hikari for the opportunity to get her emotions under control again.

"Half of our pots and pans. I'm sure Sa was intending to sell them at the Markets Festival. Found them when I was looking through the wardrobe in Nemu's old room, where we keep all the second-hand clothes. It would be nice if we had something in the new girl's size, other than the old nightdress she's wearing now. At least, that was what I was thinking before I found this lot. I'd been wondering where it had all gone, of course."

"Seriously... How did that pair ever become Haibane in the first place?" Rakka facefaulted as Hana clutched tightly onto her arm.

"I really think we should send them to the Factory. They'd fit in with the girls there, better." Hikari dropped the box onto the floor with a crash. "They've probably run all the way there when they heard me growling after I'd found it. Honestly... It'll be the Hibernian Modge, for dinner, for them tonight. Extra thick and lumpy. And tasteless."

There was a thumping, crashing sound, and a cry of pain and fear, from the common room. All three looked at each other, eyes wide.

"What the heck..." Hikari managed to get out before any of them moved.

"RAAAAKAAAAA! RAKKA, WHERE ARE YOU? HELP ME! DON'T LEAVE ME! PLEASE! RAAAAKAAAAAAAAA!" Ketsueki's voice echoed along the corridor as they reached the common room, throwing the door open. Ketsueki was on the floor, beside the bed, just barely on her hands and knees, desperately crawling towards them, her fingernails digging in to gain purchase. Rakka pushed the painting into Hana's hands and ran up to Ketsueki, grabbing her, lifting her up into a sitting position.

"Ketsueki... Ketsueki, what are you doing?" Rakka tried to grab the girl's attention, but she fought Rakka, as if trying to get away. Eventually, Rakka managed to grab her by the chin and pull her face towards hers. The moment Ketsueki's maddened, zigzagging eyes locked onto Rakka's face, she stopped and went limp.

"Rakka... You're still here. Still here..."

"Yes, I'm still here." She smiled as the girl rested her head against her chest. Rakka then noticed that she had cut her lower lip, probably when she fell from the bed. She reached over to Hana. "The cloth around the painting, give it to me, quickly." Hana quickly unwrapped the cloth and handed it to Rakka, who started dabbing Ketsueki's lip with it. "This is a nasty cut. I wish we had some ice, or something like that."

"Unfortunately, the refrigerator doesn't work well enough for the freezer to make ice..." Hikari stepped away, looking for the medical kit, muttering. "Hasn't worked well enough for a couple of years, now."

"I can get you some ice." Said a voice from the doorway. Rakka looked up to see the twins, watching the scene, smiling nervously. It was Sa who spoke.

"Oh, you do, do you?" Hikari stamped back across the floor, leaning over them with hands on hips. "And just where are you hiding this so-called ice?"

"I made a little freezer device, from bits I got in town." Sa gave Hikari her best rabbit-in-the-headlights expression. "I can get some now, if you want."

"Yes." Hikari gestured back to Ketsu. "I guess I might just want. Pronto."

Sa scampered past her sister, back down the hallway. Yu stayed where she was, watching Ketsueki with frightened eyes. "I could hear her. I kept telling Sa. I could hear her screaming for the past couple of hours..."

"What are you talking about?" Hikari turned her attentions on the second twin. "She only started just a minute ago."

"No, it was... ever since she came out of the cocoon. I've been hearing those cries... It was like at the edge of my hearing, like it was distant. When it happened just then..." Yu shook her head and took a step back. "She shouldn't stay here. You should send her to the Factory. I don't want her here. She's strange." And with that, Yu ran off, presumably following her sister.

Rakka looked down at the girl, lying contentedly in her arms, wondering whether, or not, Yu might actually have a point.

**END OF PART 3**

----o

**DARK DAY FOR ANIME - THE RIGHT DISHONOURABLE MARK A PAGE**

**FEATHER 2.0: 24 November 2005**


	4. Part 4: Night Stars Eternity

DARK DAY FOR ANIME - THE RIGHT DISHONOURABLE MARK A PAGE  
  
Disclaimer: Blah and blah don't belong to me etc...  
  
----o  
  
Ketsu lay on top of the small rise of grass, overlooking a vast landscape, humming a tune she had almost forgotten as the sun warmed her through.  
  
For a second, she realised that there was something missing from this moment.... Something, or someone.  
  
----o  
  
"What do you think it is like, over the other side of the wall?"  
  
Kumiko turned to her strange little Haibane sister as they sat togther on the edge of the bridge, overlooking the canal. For all intents and purposes, they could have been sisters in reality, for their appearances were quite similar. The only real difference between them was the texture of their hair. Kumiko's was long and wavy, whilst Chigusa's was shorter and more wiry. Chigusa had long given up trying to grow her hair long; it just never worked.  
  
But apart from those small differences, they were inseparable, like twins. And in all the years she had known her, Chigusa had never asked her such a question before.  
  
"I'm not sure." Kumiko shrugged and looked away. "It isn't something I really think about."  
  
"Why not?" Chigusa was more direct now. "I mean, aren't you just the least bit curious?"  
  
"Hmm...." Kumiko thought about it for a few moments. "They say that evil exists on the other side of the wall, but I don't know. I've never seen what evil is like, so I can't judge. Whatever the case, it can't be as good as it is in here."  
  
"Is that what you think?" Chigusa looked disappointed with the response. Kumiko patted her on her wings.  
  
"Well, you're bound to find out one day. All you have to do is flap those wings of yours hard enough."  
  
"Oh, if only that were true. You know, I used to have a life over there."  
  
"That's the theory." Kumiko nodded. "At least, that's the only theory."  
  
"No, it's true. For some reason, the memory of the life I lead, before I became a Haibane, isn't as clouded as it is for others. For most, those memories are reduced to little more than the dream we have in the cocoon. But I can remember events in my life.... There weren't many, but I can remember the faces of my mother and father, things they said, people they knew.... Though not specific names, or anything. Almost as if my memory has been combed through with specific little bits taken out. I've often wondered why."  
  
Kumiko opened her mouth to say something, closed it again when she thought better of it, then decided to try another tack. "You've.... never mentioned this before. To me." Pause. "Why now? I mean, what is different?"  
  
"I'm not sure. I guess I'm starting to grow up at last. Maybe the memories have been allowed to remain within me because I'm more grounded than other Haibane. I was born in your house. I grew up with your family...." She giggled. "And, you know, grounded is a really bad word to use for someone with utterly useless wings on her back." Kumiko giggled in turn, and Chigusa put a hand around her shoulders. "You know I'm probably going to disappear one day, perhaps not all that far away."  
  
"I know." Kumiko let out a long breath. "I know. But not yet. We have time, yet, to be together."  
  
Chigusa smiled and reached into the collar of her shirt, pulling out a small turquoise pendant on a gold chain. She undid the fast at the back of her neck and placed it into Kumiko's left hand. "Have this. Papa gave it to me when I turned ten, but it really isn't my style at all."  
  
Kumiko stared at the pendant. "You really.... really want me to have this?"  
  
"Well I wouldn't have given it to you, otherwise, silly. Besides, I don't know if I'll be able to take this with me when I eventually leave." And she closed her hands around Kumiko's, pressing her fingers down around the pendant. "Think of it as a lucky Haibane charm. It will protect you whenever you're in trouble. Or something like that."  
  
"'Or something like that'? You know, you have a way of presenting romantically wistful notions as being dubiously unreliable."  
  
"Can't help the fact that I don't take myself seriously enough. Something you should learn in your relations with others...."  
  
And in the silence that followed, they watched the vermillion sunset together in a moment that was etched in eternity.  
  
----o  
  
**An Haibane Renmei Fanfiction  
  
Red Feathers in Old Home  
  
by Dark Day For Anime  
  
Part 4  
  
Night - Stars - Eternity**  
  
----o  
  
"You know, quite frankly.... We might be twins but there are days where I just can't understand you." Sa, lying on her side, stared across the room at her sister from her bed. "Why did you freak out at Ketsu like that? It isn't fair to her to act like that the day she arrives here."  
  
Yu remained resolutely silent, turned away from Sa on her own bed. Typical, Sa thought to herself. The silly cow was becoming more and more moody and sulky with each passing day. It was a wonder anyone had trouble telling them apart, anymore. "Alright, then. Be like that." And she turned, facing the darkened ceiling.  
  
Night was a time that Sa wasn't particularly happy with. It meant you had to be quiet and stop doing things, and that wasn't Sa's style at all. It was something of a worry for the older feathers, in her early days at Old Home, that the only times she would sleep was when she practically collapsed from exhaustion. Sleep, in her mind, were a few hours of precious time lost for no good. And besides, it gave her time to think and dream, all by herself. And she hated that.  
  
"You really don't hear it, do you?" Yu's soft voice carried across the room like subliminal thunder in the dead silence. Sa huffed and pouted.  
  
"No, I don't hear it. And if you keep talking about it in others' presence, they're going to think you're a little off in the head."  
  
"I'm not off in the head. I really did hear her. All day. The same cries she made when she was panicking. All day."  
  
"You, girl, are putting two and two together and getting twenty-two." Sa crossed her arms and though for a few moments. "There were so many people in Old Home, today. It could have been anything, or anyone. Or you were just imagining it."  
  
"I wasn't imagining it."  
  
"It could have been bird cry, too. I mean, those crows just hang around and squawk all day. They're really creepy...."  
  
"It wasn't the crows. It was her."  
  
Sa had gad enough. She sat bolt upright, grabbed one of her pillows and pitched it across the room at Yu, hard enough to shock her out of her reverie. Yu grabbed the pillow, sat up and turned, glaring at her sister.  
  
"What was that for?"  
  
"For being a stupid cow who thinks too much about stupid things. I'm glad I'm giving up the job at the second-hand goods store. I've just about had enough of your moodiness."  
  
"Wait.... What do you mean you're 'giving up'? Where the hell are you going? Have you told Inakuma-san about this?" Yu gripped the pillow, tensely as Sa turned away, looking as if she'd let a cat out of a particular bag. She decided to run with it.  
  
"Inakuma knows. I told her last week. I'm going to work for Kristas and Jones, the electricians, as an apprentice." She turned back to Yu. "I showed them all the stuff I'd put together, and they said I showed promise. So I'm changing jobs."  
  
Yu's anger seemed to have drained from her. "You're leaving me behind, and you didn't think to tell me until now?" Her lips trembled in a way that made Sa feel pretty, well, bad.  
  
"I was going to tell you. Eventually. I mean, we might be twins, but that doesn't mean we have to do everything together, does it?"  
  
"That's not fair." Yu's voice broke with emotion. "Why is it that you always go and do your own thing, and I follow? It just isn't fair, Sa." Yu threw her bedcovers and the pillow aside and stood from her bed, shaking in the moonlight cast through the window.  
  
"You don't have to follow me." Now Sa could feel tears coming on. "Why do you think you have to do everything I do? Why don't you get a life of your own? We aren't the same person.... We're two different people, and just because we look exactly alike won't change that."  
  
"I don't know." Tears started to stream down Yu's face. "I don't know what to do. I thought, if I did what you did, then everything would be alright. I wouldn't have to think about it. I just don't know.... I can't ever make a decision for myself. Haven't you worked that out, yet?"  
  
Sa shook her head, angrily. "You're just lazy. You think if, you just copy me, then you can save yourself the worry. What are you, my shadow, or something?"  
  
"Maybe...." Yu clenched her fists. "Maybe that's all I am. Maybe that's all I ever will be. And one day, you'll turn around and find I'm not there, anymore."  
  
"Yu...."  
  
"I can still hear her." Yu put her hands to her head. "She's crying out in pain. Her wings are breaking through, and she's calling out to Rakka. And something horrible is watching her. I can see it. I can see it all. I don't want to be around her.... She is bringing things into Old Home that I don't want."  
  
Yu's world started to spin, and she staggered. Sa leapt from her bed to grab her sister before she fell, but Yu brushed her aside.  
  
"Yu.... It's alright. I believe you. You're hearing these things. I believe you." And with the way Yu was acting, she really was starting to believe. Yu was having none of it.  
  
"You're just saying that." She clutched her head tightly, staggering away from her sister. "What is the point of your being kind to me? It's obvious what you think about me, now. Ooohhh.... The cries. It's too much."  
  
Yu staggered to the door, throwing it open. Sa tried to follow, but Yu would simply throw an arm out every time she got close. Eventually, she staggered into the hallway and was off, like a rocket. Sa stood in the doorway, watching her disappear, not knowing what to do next.  
  
In frustration, she stamped her way towards the now-empty storeroom, but a few doors away. Entering it, she stared at the now dried-up and broken remains of the cocoon, which, in the commotion of yesterday, hadn't been cleaned up. She stepped up to it and touched one of the broken shards. It felt no different to the remains of her own cocoon.... She and her sister had been allowed to keep a piece of both of theirs, each, in their early days when they'd just received their halos. She'd like to touch the broken shard, feel the tactile roughness of it. Somehow, it seemed to comfort her. But slowly, the shard withered and crumbled into dust, as if its place in this world had passed.  
  
And this one felt no different. So why would Yu think she was any different? Sure, her reactions were a little strange, but she was, after all, just getting used to what had become of her.... Sa had been much the same when she arrived.  
  
She turned the piece over in her hands, lit in a faint glow. A faint reddish glow. She looked up for a moment, at the base of the main shell. There was a warmly-radiating energy within the base that was lit with a ruddy luminescence. Sa dropped the shard and stepped up to the base, staring at it. Even closer, she could feel the warmth. The glow was gently pulsating, like a slow and steady heartbeat. She reached out and touched the base, close to where she'd earlier put her foot through. And then....  
  
**"RAAAKKAAAAAA! IT HURTS! IT HURTS! MAKE IT STOOOOOOP! OH, IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS! MAKE IT STOOOOOP!"**  
  
Sa snatched her hand away, her eyes open wide. She backed up and ran from the room, almost tripping as she did so, back into her own bedroom, into her own bed, where she threw the covers over her head. And there she remained for a while.  
  
----o  
  
Yu had always been more comfortable at night. She really didn't like the sun that much. Although she didn't mind the acquiescence of the summer days. It meant that Sa wasn't cooped up in the Old Home, going stir crazy. Cooped up, of course, with her.  
  
Yu stood in the courtyard, standing stiff and upright, letting the tears flow. The other good thing about the night was the fact that it allowed you to be alone, without anyone to bother you. And on warm summer nights like this, the outside air was pleasant, especially if you happend to be outside in nothing more than a thin nightdress without so much as a cardigan and shoes. Just another thing for her to berate herself with.  
  
She caught a sob and looked up at the sky, the moon and the stars. The moon, in full cycle. Little surprise that everything was in turmoil. Everything. She turned and looked at the window doors of the common room. There was still a light inside, and she thought she could see movement. It didn't surprise her that one of the others would be up, taking care of that new girl. But all was silent. There were no screams and cries coming from there. The girl's wings had not yet grown enough for them to break free of her flesh. Yu looked back at her own wings, remembering how quickly they had appeared. But, of course, she had not broken free of the cocoon early. It might be a couple of days, yet, before Ketsu's wings showed themselves.  
  
Ketsu. Blood. The girl's head had been smeared with blood when she had hatched. It didn't surprise Yu at all. She had always been able to feel things others couldn't, not even Sa. And even before the cries in her head had started, she could feel something strange was happening in Old Home. After all, it was she who had alerted Sa to the sounds from the storeroom.... Not so much sounds as, well, noises. In her head. But she couldn't say that to Sa.  
  
Sa.... Yu felt bitter tears rise once more, before she almost launched herself across the courtyard with the touch of a hand on her shoulder.  
  
"Oh dear.... I'm sorry." Yu had almost run for her life before recognising the voice of the eldery house mother. She turned to the woman, who was wrapped in a shawl over her own nightdress. "I didn't mean to startle you, dear." She said, soothingly. "I saw you as I was returning from one of the children's rooms. What are you doing, standing out here in the open. You'll catch yourself a death of a cold if you're not careful."  
  
"I'm okay." Yu wrapped her arms across her front, sullenly.  
  
"Well, you're in a right state, I must say. Have you been crying?" The house mother reached forward, for Yu's chin, but the girl shrugged off her attentions. "Hmmm...." The woman crossed her arms. "I see. So its going to be like that, is it? Ah, what to do with children, these days?" She chuckled. "You're the twin Yu, aren't you?"  
  
Yu looked at her, suspiciously. "How would you know? I might be Sa."  
  
"Oh hardly. I can tell the both of you apart, easily. Ever since you were under my daily care, I could tell the two of you apart." She shook her head. "No matter how hard you tried to confuse everyone. It was amusing, watching the pair of you trying to fool people."  
  
"Doesn't change anything. I still might be Sa, for all you know."  
  
"Sa doesn't sulk quite the way you do. She wouldn't run off and cry alone in the courtyard, like this, and especially not in the middle of the night." The house mother gestured to the doorway. "If you'd like, I can make you some hot chocolate, or something suitably comforting. Looks like you're in need of a sudden boost of sugars and bliss-inducing compounds."  
  
"Don't want any." Yu huffed crossing her arms and pouting. The house mother took her by the ear.  
  
"That, little lady, was not an offer. You will accompany me back to a place where we can sit down, drink hot chocolate and discuss personal problems. Do you understand?"  
  
"Ow. Yes. Ow." Yu clenched her teeth as she was lead, ear-first, back into the building.  
  
----o  
  
Rakka watched as Ketsu slept on the bed, her breathing slow, soft and calm. It was hard to believe that this girl had been in a state of hysterics earlier in the day. Rakka peered over at the small clock that Kana had hung on the wall at the far end of the common/guest room. Yesterday. It was past midnight, now.  
  
And she couldn't sleep. Not one little bit. So much was playing on her mind that she simply couldn't relax on the small cot that they'd laid out earlier, next to Ketsu's bed. Once, Rakka had slept soundly on that same bed, with another watching over her, restlessly. For a few moments, the years that had passed between those moments seemed to melt away, as if there was really no difference between the then and now. Moments that lasted an eternity, imprinted upon this room like ink on paper.  
  
Reki stood in the corner of the room, watching her. Smiling. Silent. With a cigarette hanging out of the corner of her mouth. For a second, Rakka thought she was really there, but it occured to her that Reki probably wouldn't be a smoker, now, and she certainly wouldn't still have those grey wings, and the halo. Rakka had found the halo, one time she happened to be in the Western Woods. It was nearby where she had found Kuu's, and Nemu's. Sometimes she felt she like she'd been left to pick up other peoples' messes.  
  
Reki's figure chuckled as she took the cigarette from her mouth and tapped off the burnt ash, blowing a small cloud of smoke into the room. And then she vanished, much like the smoke. Rakka turned back to Ketsu, studying her features and her hair. There was a strong likeness between the two. Ketsu's face was thin but attractive, her hair long, straight and black. For a moment she could almost believe that Reki had returned to them, to haunt them for all eternity. Rakka bopped herself one over the head for thinking that. There was no way Reki could ever be this clingy, this needy. If it had been Reki, then something terribly wrong had happened to her, wherever she had gone after her Day of Flight. No, this wasn't Reki, this was Ketsu. Someone completely different.... Different....  
  
"....I'm sorry, is the dream a scary one?" Rakka gave Ketsu a concerned look as the girl pulled the covers tightly over her form. Her eyes were moving from one person to another in the room: Hikari, Kana, the twins, Hana and finally Rakka. There was a deeply searching and reading expression in those dark, dark eyes that troubled Rakka when she saw them.  
  
"No." Ketsu's voice was hoarse and husky, not simply because it had been so soon since she'd left the cocoon. "No, not altogether scary. I mean, scary things did happen, but...." Her eyes bored deep into Rakka's. "They're not going to hurt me. I'm not afraid of them."  
  
"What happened?" Kana asked, without a hint of subtlety. She was still munching on a bread roll, the last remains of dinner that night. Ketsu turned to her, her head snapping around so fast that Kana almost dropped the roll. Ketsu's gaze was as unsettling for her as it had been for Rakka.  
  
"I was being chased by someone who wanted to hurt me. And they succeeded. But I was saved, by an angel with red wings." She turned back to Rakka. "That angel was you, in a way, wasn't it?"  
  
Rakka wasn't sure how to respond. "Well, the dreams we have in the cocoon aren't exactly specific and often metaphorical. I guess it could have been me." But she knew it wasn't the case. She had had Hana hide the painting from Ketsu, just in case the connection between them caused something.... she wasn't sure what, but she was sure that Ketsu would react rather badly.  
  
"Is that all you can remember?" Hikari pressed the issue. "Just that you were being chased?"  
  
Ketsu looked down at the floor. For a few seconds it looked as if she were ignoring Hikari altogether, but then she lifted her head and frowned. "No, I was being chased in a place with a lot of long corridors. There were a lot of doors leading away, and stairways, and a big yard outside, with trees and other buildings." She paused. "The place looked much like this, only newer. Bigger. And the person who was chasing me was someone I knew, for some time. I don't know why they were chasing me, but I know that they hated me. No, that's not the right word for it...." She paused, her brow creasing in deep thought, almost as if she were intellectually separating herself from the memories of the dream. "The person had a deep darkness within them. I was not the first person to have been hurt by them, but I did not know this, until it was too late."  
  
"I don't think we should press Ketsu any further." Rakka stepped forward and place a hand on Ketsu's shoulder. The girl turned to her and smiled, placing a hand on Rakka and rubbing her cheek against it.  
  
"I'll be okay. You're here. I have friends who can protect me, now."  
  
"You shouldn't be here." Everyone turned to Yu, who was standing near the door. She stared at Ketsu, almost with the same piercing look that Ketsu gave everyone else.  
  
"Yu...." Sa tugged her sister's sleeve with embarassment, but Yu simply brushed her off.  
  
"You're dangerous to us all." Yu pointed at Ketsu. "I know you will be. You'll hurt us all, one way or another. And you'll hurt yourself. This place is for blessed Haibane, and you won't be blessed. Mark my words, you will destroy Old Home before you leave. I can see it...."  
  
During her tirade, Hikari had quietly approached her. So quietly that the sharp slap across her face came as much as a surprise as it did to everyone else. Yu stood with her hand against her reddening cheek as Hikari glowered at her, her hand still raised in the backswing of the slap. "Apologise." She growled. "Apologise to Ketsu, this instant."  
  
Tears started to fill Yu's eyes. "You just don't get it, do you? I can hear her, even now.... Her cries of fear and pain. Inside her is a dark pit of fear none of us shall be able to fill. She'll drain every one of us dry and move on." She backed away, towards the door. Sa grabbed her by the arm.  
  
"Yu.... Stop this. You're not talking sense."  
  
Yu stared at her sister, tears now cascading down her face. "Can't you hear them? The cries? You're my sister. Surely you can hear them? Surely?"  
  
All Sa could do was shake her head. Yu wrenched her arm away from her sister and turned, throwing the door open and running away. Sa followed her to the doorway and watched her go. She turned back to the others. "I'm sorry.... I'll make sure she apologises to Ketsu.... in time." And with that, she followed her sister.  
  
"She.... doesn't need to apologise." Ketsu hoarse tones echoes across the room. "I understand why she feels as she does. She's afraid. Afraid of me. She wants to run away from me. I understand those feelings well. I almost feel as if I've been spending all of my existence, running away from something." She looked up at Rakka. "I won't be running away, now. And I won't hurt any of you." Her eyes became pleading. "You do believe me, don't you?"  
  
It was almost as if an entire eternity depended on her next few words. "I uhhhh.... Of course I believe you. No Haibane is born in Glie to hurt others. At least, not deliberately."  
  
Ketsu smiled. "Not deliberately." And she chuckled with a genuine warmth that seemed to knock edges off the intensity she had, up until now, displayed. "Ahhhh...." She threw herself back on the bed. "I'm not really getting off to the best start, here, am I?"  
  
"Well, it could've run more smoothly." Kana shrugged. "But then, I was a bit of a tearaway when I arrived, so how much worse could you be?"  
  
Rakka lay down on the cot and stared up at Ketsu's sleeping form once more.  
  
"How much worse could you be?" Rakka whispered to herself. "As bad as the Washi says you could be? Your every expression is a mask to what lies underneath. Even I could see that, Ketsu. Even I could see." Rakka reached up and touched Ketsu's face. "But I made a promise, to look after you for as long as I can. What you do with that is up to you." And with that, Rakka turned and closed her eyes, drifting off into sleep.  
  
Moments later, Ketsu opened her own and stared at the back of Rakka's head. At the wavy, messy auburn hair, at the wings that protruded from her back, at the halo that sat, uncomfortably, above her head. A gentle smile crossed her face as she reached out to touch the halo, but retracted it when Rakka stirred. She stared at the hand for a few moments, then held it up to her mouth as she closed her eyes, hoping for much more pleasant dreams when sleep claimed her once more....  
  
Dreams like....  
  
----o  
  
"So, she's going to take up the job, after all...." The house mother nodded as she sat down at the table. Yu noted that the house mother's own living space was much neater, and not to mention newer, than the rest of Old Home. Most of the walls had been freshly plastered and painted, the curtains across the windows were all brightly coloured, and the furniture was probably not much older than Yu, herself. Yu was almost jealous, as she submerged her top lip into a deep mug of thick hot chocolate, which wasn't all that hot by the time she'd got around to actually starting to drink it. "It doesn't surprise me all that much. Sa is the kind of person who finds it easiest to espress herself when she is doing something. What surprises me is how long it took for her to work this out."  
  
"And what about me?" Yu said, almost spitting her mouthful of hot chocolate across the table. The house mother gave her a stern look over her manners.  
  
"What about you, young lady? Surely being an electrician is not your idea of a fun time?"  
  
"Well, no.... But...."  
  
"But what?" She smiled, raising an eyebrow. "Somehow, I think, the life of the manual labourer is not for the quiet, sensitive young Haibane girl named Yu, don't you think?"  
  
Yu looked down into her mug, as if studying the swirls and eddies of its contents. "I don't know what kind of life I'm supposed to be choosing for myself. Sa always seems to know what she wants, but I...."  
  
"....Just let yourself fall into things without really thinking if that's what you want to do, hmmmm?" The house mother tutted. "Honestly, do you think that is so bad? If that's what you want to do, do you think it is so bad?"  
  
"I don't know. I don't like thinking about such things. It always leaves me feeling confused."  
  
"So are you going to continue working for Reiko at the second hand shop?"  
  
Yu chewed it over. "She'd be sad if I left, wouldn't she?"  
  
"A little. I'm sure she likes having the pair of you around, and would feel sad if you both left at once."  
  
"Though the way people tend to look at us, I'd not be surprised if she felt a little relief, as well...." Yu chuckled. "We're not exactly the most reliable of workers, at anything, are we?"  
  
"You're a lot more reliable than you think you are. Who was it that washed everyones' clothes yesterday when nobody else could?"  
  
"Yeah, but...."  
  
The house mother clicked her tongue. "You really are hard on yourself, aren't you? Honestly, I wouldn't have thought it from the likes of you. Go on, drink your chocolate before it gets cold."  
  
Yu gulped down a sizeable portion from her mug before placing it on the table and licking the froth from her lips. "You know...." She mused. "I think I will stay at the second hand store. I was always better at collecting junk for sale than Sa was. She only ever collected stuff to use on her gadgets."  
  
"See, you do know what you want to do, after all." The house mother chuckled.  
  
Yu rubbed her head for a moment, then frowned. "I should apologise to Sa. I was rude to her, before." She closed her eyes and continued to rub her forehead.  
  
"What is it, dear? Are you not feeling well?"  
  
"No. It isn't that." Yu looked up at her. "I've been hearing strange things ever since the new girl arrived. I guess it's what has been making me so upset." She paused. "I said really nasty things to the new girl as well. I should apologise to her as well. But...."  
  
"But...?" The house mother looked on at her, expectantly.  
  
"But I keep getting strange vibes from her. Although I'm not sure if it is her, specifically, or something hanging over her."  
  
The house mother nodded. Yes, I would expect that." Yu looked quizzically at her. "Oh, it's just an old story, about Haibane whose cocoons appear near the painting of the Akabane."  
  
"What story is this?"  
  
The house mother considered her for a moment, then cleared her throat. "Well, its like this...."  
  
----o  
  
Ketsu lay with her head resting in Rakka's lap atop a small rise of grass, the sun warming them both, as Rakka hummed a tune that she could only just remember the notes for, a hand gently playing with Ketsu's long black hair. Ketsu looked up at her smile before closing her eyes, feeling that she was safe enough to do so, for once. Then she realised something, and opened her eyes again. Rakka's halo was gone. She turned her head and peered up over Rakka's shoulders. Her wings were also missing.  
  
Ketsu sat up, surprising Rakka. She looked around, but didn't recognise where they were. Nearby, a young woman with long dark hair like her own was packing away what appeared to be a picnic basket, a cigarette hanging out of the corner of her mouth.  
  
"What is it, Ketsu?" Rakka asked, and she turned back to her.  
  
"I.... For a second, I couldn't remember where we were. I thought...."  
  
Rakka placed a hand on hers. "It's alright. Sometimes you forget where you are. Sometimes you even forget who you are, but it doesn't matter. All that matters is that you're here."  
  
Those words calmed Ketsu. She lowered her gaze to Rakka's hand. "I haven't forgotten anything. Not where I am or who I am. But sometimes I feel as if I'm being swallowed up by those memories." She looked back up at Rakka's face. "I'm glad I found you, at last."  
  
"My dear Ketsu.... I was never lost to you." And with that, Rakka held Ketsu to her. It was, quite possibly the epiphany of all of Ketsu's existence. She closed her eyes and....  
  
....Opened them again, to the rays of a new morning. Rakka was still there, asleep in the cot next to her. No, she hadn't forgotten where or who she was.... even if she felt like she would forget herself in those memories. She reached across to touch Rakka, but found her shoulders stiff and sore, her shoulder blades cut sharply with shooting pains as if her muscles were straining under pressure. Withdrawing her hand she looked back. Small lumps were appearing underneath the nightdress, and she guessed the time was getting near for her wings to appear.  
  
She felt a presence at the end of the bed, and looked over to see Yu standing there, an expression of pity mixed with fear on her face. She opened her mouth to say something, but the girl shook her head.  
  
"I'm not afraid of you." Yu whispered. "There is nothing to fear from you. But there is a lot to fear around you. Be careful, when you call, that what appears has wings of red. Or there may never be another Day of Flight in Glie."  
  
And with that, Yu turned and walked from the room, leaving Ketsu feeling alone and confused....  
  
END OF PART 4  
  
----o  
  
DARK DAY FOR ANIME - THE RIGHT DISHONOURABLE MARK A PAGE

FEATHER 1.0: 4th-5th September 2004


	5. Part 5: Regeneration Death Change

DARK DAY FOR ANIME - THE RIGHT DISHONOURABLE MARK A PAGE  
  
Disclaimer: Blah and blah don't belong to me etc...  
  
----o  
  
"What is your idea of paradise?"  
  
Ketsu looked up into Rakka's face, as if seeing it for the first time. Once more her head was lying in Rakka's lap. Once more they were on the top of a small grassy rise in the middle of a vast landscape, the warm sun shining down upon them. The question hung, eternally, in Ketsu's mind, and she wasn't really sure how long it took her to come up with an answer.  
  
"I'm not sure." Her mouth almost moved by itself. It wasn't really an answer. It was more an avoidance of one. Something in Rakka's eyes told her as much. She turned her gaze to the sky above, unable to look into those questioning, searching eyes anymore. "Maybe something like this." That was more like it. That was truly more of an answer. But Rakka was still silent and she felt she had to dig deeper within, to find the key that would unlock that silence. "A place where there aren't many people to complicate your life. Just those you care about. Just those you want to see."  
  
"You don't like people?" Rakka's tone was one of disappointment, and Ketsu didn't want that. More than anything, she didn't want to disappoint her. She sat up and returned to Rakka's gaze. The eyes were more pleading, now.... Hoping. What was it that Rakka wanted to hear? Should she ask? Ask in return? A question in return. That was it. That should be it, she was sure.  
  
"There is no reason to like everyone, is there?" Her voice sounded unsure, even as she said it. "I mean, you're not going to be able to like everyone. People just don't work that way." She needed to find the words. The words she was trying to say. "That would mean being vulnerable to everyone.... Should I allow myself to be vulnerable. That vulnerable? It is impossible, isn't it?"  
  
Now it seemed to be Rakka's turn to have problems, finding the words to say. She opened her mouth, then looked down, as if trying to hide something from Ketsu, who grasped her hand and squeezed it tightly. "You can't like everyone, can you?"  
  
"No...." Rakka turned away, watching the young woman, with long black hair and a cigarette hanging from the side of her mouth, packing up the small picnic basket nearby. Ketsu knew the woman was there, but she didn't know how. The woman had been there, before. She was much older than Ketsu.... But that meant nothing in the end. What were a few years compared to the forces of eternity. And Ketsu knew that Rakka had a connection to her much deeper than the one she had to Ketsu. "No, not everyone. But you can't cut people off for that reason." And in Rakka's words, Ketsu saw that moment of jealousy, laid bare.  
  
"I'm cutting people off?" Ketsu followed Rakka's gaze, but the young woman was gone, picnic basket and all. She knew, instinctively, that she was nowhere to be found, but for a faint echo, like a voice in the distance, calling out to her, or eyes, watching her from a forest of trees. "Who...." Eternity hung on the words. "....Was that?"  
  
"Just someone." Rakka's voice seemed to be fading away. Even the feeling of Rakka's hand in her own was vanishing. Rakka was vanishing, yet she felt she could continue to hold on. Rakka wouldn't disappear from her, surely.... "She'll come back if you want her to." She'll come back.... if she wanted her to. There was nothing in the world she wanted more, surely. Yet there it was again. That sense of jealousy. Ketsu didn't know if she wanted her back. Surely, Rakka was enough, on her own. She didn't need anything else. Didn't need it.  
  
"If I want her to.... But I don't know who she is." Don't know who she is. Was that a lie? She thought she DID know. But the woman was gone. The woman had a name, a name that represented something. A name that echoed through eternity and had a deeper meaning, in this place. Would this place accept someone whose name meant 'blood', though? Was her jealousy a sign of her own being, as an atrocity, an obscenity, in the eyes of others? Rakka's hand was like paper. Like water. Like air. Impossible to hold....  
  
"Have you ever asked?"  
  
Have I ever asked? Have I ever cared enough to ask. Is ignoring her ignoring a vital part of Rakka, a part so large that, to ignore it, would mean losing Rakka, perhaps forever? Ketsu could no longer feel Rakka's hand. And when she turned round, she could see, with her own eyes, how much she had lost her. She stood and wheeled around, searching, ever searching, for someone. For Rakka. For anyone. And there was nobody, all the way to the horizon that wasn't there, and beyond.  
  
She called out for Rakka and ran, from the grassy rise, down across a small field and into a stand of trees, where a path awaited her....  
  
----o  
  
**An Haibane Renmei Fanfiction  
  
Red Feathers in Old Home  
  
by Dark Day For Anime  
  
Part 5  
  
Regeneration - Death - Change**  
  
----o  
  
"What are you doing?" Yu held up the bedsheets with one hand and peered at Sa, who was looking back at her with equal surprise. "It's time to get up. We've got work to do, today."  
  
"I'm not feeling so good." Sa turned from her, pulling the bedsheets away and wrapping them tightly around her body. Yu put hands on hips and pouted. She prided herself on her ability to pout. She was even better than Sa, who never really took to sulking as an emotional hit quite as much. It really annoyed her that a good pout was being so completely ignored.  
  
"You, sick? Don't give me that. You're never ill, even when you are." And with that, she glomped her sister and started tickling her through the sheets. "Come on, up you get. Coochie coochie coo, and words to that effect."  
  
"Oi! Don't! Stop that!" Sa wriggled underneath her sister's attacks before sitting up and pushing her away. "Mooouuuuu. Don't do that. Don't you ever do that."  
  
Yu quietly watched as her sister stood from her bed and stretched before staring out of the window at the sunlight beyond. Sa's silence made Yu feel uncomfortable. Sa was never silent, not for any reason. "So what's wrong with you?" Yu jumped from the bed, landing on her feet as she crossed the room to where she'd left her neatly folded clothes on top of a small cabinet: a dark blue dress with the kind of frills that Sa would never think of wearing. It was one of the recent additions to her wardrobe, though she'd never got around to wearing it. For some reason, now seemed like a good time to really upset her sister.  
  
Sa, of course, was in her own world. "What do you mean, 'what is wrong with me'? There is never anything wrong with me. I'm perfect." She chuckled to herself. "I suppose that makes you the prototype, then."  
  
Yu ignored the slight. "Silence and you do not go together. You hate it. It gives you the opportunity to think, and thinking isn't your style at all. It might mean you have to respond to your own thoughts." Bah! She had promised the house mother that she would apologise to Sa, but as usual, Sa always made it difficult.... It was hard to be apologetic to someone you were so close to that you might as well have been cast from the same mould. No wonder she felt like differentiating herself, starting today. How long had she felt that way?  
  
"I refute the suggestion that I do things without thinking."  
  
Yu looked across at her sister, who had still not turned from the window. Ah well, might as well get the pain over and done with. "Is it because of what I said last night? If so, I apologise. I was wrong to have reacted like that...."  
  
"You're not wrong. Not at all." Sa looked aside at her in a way that made Yu feel really horrible about what she had been thinking. But then, Sa had never looked like that, before. Never. It was so different from the Sa she was used to that she was sure a shiver ran down her spine. "Not about anything." Sa continued. "Not about the voices you heard. Not about anything at all." She turned away again, and Yu felt she knew what Sa was going to say, next. Perhaps it was true, what they would say about twins, having some kind of psychic connection. At least, everyone in town would always say they acted like they had no independent thoughts of their own.... "I heard them last night." She heard them, last night. She had HEARD them, just like Yu had heard them, all throughout yesterday. "I heard them, when I went up the hall to that room." To THAT room. The room where Ketsu had come from. "When I touched the remains of the cocoon. I heard her."  
  
Yu's mouth opened to say something, but Sa was quicker. She felt she had to be. She could almost sense the thoughts going through her sister's mind, now. She had to impress upon Yu exactly what had happened to her. She didn't know why, but she was sure that it was something vitally important. Something instinctive. She turned from the window, stepped over to Yu and grabbed her arm, then dragged her sister over to the door and threw it open. "Sa.... What is it? What's wrong?" But Sa didn't respond. There was no need to respond. Better to show. It was so much easier for her to simply show, rather than explain. She didn't have the way with words that Yu had. That was a difference between them, and one she had felt most strongly, ever since Ketsu came into this world. Ever since they found the cocoon. Something was changing, inside of them, accelarated by the discovery of the cocoon.  
  
She continued to lead Yu to the storeroom before she stopped in the open doorway, her mouth hanging open. It shouldn't have come as any surprise to her, what with all that had happened so far, but all the same, the gobsmack was there. Whack!  
  
Yu managed to wrestle her arm from Sa's grip and moved around to see what Sa was looking at. From Sa's expression, whatever she had hoped to show her had taken several psychological leaps forward. "I...." Sa started to say. "I came here last night, after you'd run out...." Yu's eyes hadn't quite got used to the gloom of the room. The light from the hallway was much brighter. Sa's eyes had adjusted much more quickly, which didn't please her all that much. After all, she was the one who liked the night a lot more.... "....I came here.... I don't know why, but I had to see the cocoon for some reason." Sa continued. "And it was glowing. In the base, but that was all. A small red glow." A small red glow. Yu looked for it, in the gloom. She expected to see it. "And I put my hand on the base, and I heard her cries. Only for a second, that was all. It was just like you said, you know.... Just like you said...."  
  
Yu could see the cocoon now. There didn't seem to be anything out of the usual at first, but eventually, she could see the faint reddish glow that seemed to be emanating from its base. And then she looked up along its height, and found that the cocoon was sealed. As if it had never been broken. As if Ketsu had never hatched. The cocoon had repaired itself overnight.  
  
"Oh my...." Yu whispered. "This isn't good. This isn't good at all."  
  
----o  
  
Hana stared out at the morning sunshine with a sense of impending doom. Something was going to happen today that she just knew she would regret being a part of. This ability had grown over the past few years as she watched many of the younger Haibane of her own age grow and leave for the Abandoned Factory. Even the other girls. She found the place frightening, and every time she'd been there, she'd felt as if sky was going to fall on her head beforehand. Invariably, the sky did fall. She so didn't like the boys that lived there....  
  
Though Old Home wasn't much better, what with the twins. They had made much of her younger life a living hell. Well, they'd made life difficult for everyone. But especially her. Because she was not only one of the long-term fixtures within Old Home, she was also almost their age. And that meant that she was a prime target for some of their.... activities. And, for some reason, she just knew that this sky-falling-on-head feeling pertained to them, somehow.  
  
She beat herself over the head with her fists a couple of times. There, that felt better. It hurt, but at least she was ignoring the feeling, now. It made life easier if she didn't know what was about to happen. Like the moment when she was holding Ketsu in her arms, a few seconds after the girl had hatched from her cocoon....  
  
She liked to walk the fields around Old Home in the light of early morning, when things were still likely to be quiet. A short distance away there were holes in the ground leading to a rabbit warren. There weren't many rabbits: probably no more than a dozen or so, but she could easily tell one from another and counted each to see if any had disappeared since her census the previous morning. Only one had ever disappeared, taken by a cat, a big, ginger tom who looked particularly ugly and had the temperament to match. Suffice to say, it put her off cats. She hated it when creatures so seemingly helpless were threatened by something much larger and, well, uglier. It struck some chord in her 'sense of justice' gland....  
  
That was what she felt when she held Ketsu.... Like the girl needed protection, from something bigger and uglier than she was. Like the rabbits. She always seemed to relate people to animals, somehow. It was an easy method of categorising their personalities, even before she got to know them, properly. And Ketsu seemed just like a rabbit, with all the flighty propensity and vulnerability to go with it.  
  
All the rabbits were there. Indeed, there were a couple of kittens bounding around the grass that she hadn't seen before. Change. New faces replacing the old ones. You couldn't stop change. And, sometimes, that change was good. She smiled and stretched, then carefully sat down on a stone at the edge of the field, brushing her skirt back so it wouldn't crease underneath, the bad feeling she'd had earlier having now well and truly faded.  
  
From this stone she could see down a small valley and across to a view of the township, the rooves of houses distantly glowing in the sun. Sooner or later she was going to have to find herself a job in the township. She was supposed to be one of the older feathers now, but was always too shy to visit there and ask anyone if they wanted her help.... Having had the dream of being a florist, she'd stood outside the florist's front door about a half dozen times and had been frightened away about as many times. When was she going to change? When was she going to have the will to do something with her life?  
  
"Haaanaaaa-chaaaan!" She turned to see Kana atop the rickety old bicycle, waving at her from the main path to the township. She stood and waved back. "Hurry uuuup! Breakfast will be ready soon!" Kana called out to her. "I'll see you when I get back from work."  
  
"Haaaaaiii." Hana called out as Kana struggled with the tempestuous machine along the path. As Hana watched her, she stopped twice to replace the chain on the cogs before disappearing over a rise. Then her stomach grumbled, and she realised just how hungry she really was. She jogged back to the Old Home, able to smell the aroma of pancakes wafting through the archway of the courtyard. Her speed quickened as she approached the entrance and made her way to the common room.  
  
"Honestly, I can help, you know. I'm not that helpless."  
  
"You are going to stay in that bed. Rakka tells me you're about to go into the fever before your wings pop. Even that looks like it's coming on early. Don't look at me like that...."  
  
Hana opened the door and peered into the room where Hikari and Ketsu were glaring at each other, Ketsu sitting up in the bed looking less than pleased to be there. "Ohayo." Hana said, pleasantly.  
  
They both turned their glares to her and said, in unison.... "Ohayo." ....Before Hikari turned her back on Ketsu, her arms crossed and huffing in frustration. Despite her earlier protest, Ketsu didn't seem to be entirely with it. After a quick glare at Hikari's back, she partly lay on her side, clutching the edge of the bedsheet between tremorous fingers, her eyes wavering between closing in narcoleptic bouts of sleep, and suddenly snapping open, darting around the room as if an explosion had gone off. Hana watched her do this for close to a minute, biting her lower lip, before making her way across to the table, pulling out a chair to sit down.  
  
"Hana-chan?" Rakka popped her head out from the kitchen, gesturing her over. Hana let the chair go and padded over to Rakka as she leaned over, whispering into her ear in a faux conspiratorial tone. "Can you get the twins up here for breakfast. They're dragging their feet as usual."  
  
"Umm.... Must I?" The bubble of Hana's good mood was well and truly burst, as she remembered her sky-falling-on-head feeling, again.  
  
"Yes. You must." Rakka waved a finger at her. "And I would mention that I'm not exactly pleased with Yu's little performance this morning. In front of Ketsu, before I'd woken up. Typical! About the only way she would have got away with it. She was quite upset about it."  
  
"Yes.... I'm sure she was, if they were involved." She screwed her nose up. "I really don't want to have to get them. Bad things always happen to me when I get involved with them."  
  
"Then you should be fine. They haven't had enough time to think up trouble this early in the morning." Rakka smiled, turned Hana around and gave her a gentle push in the direction of 'on your way', a direction Hana reluctantly took.  
  
As she passed by the bed, she glanced at Ketsu. The girl was now staring blankly into the corner of the room, but her mouth was moving, just perceptably, as if reciting something in silence. An uncomfortable sensation crossed Hana's mind, and she turned away as quickly as possible....  
  
----o  
  
Sa grabbed the remains of the storeroom door and jammed it into the doorway, breathing heavily as she did so. "Well, that's done that, then." She didn't really know what had done what, but she was certainly glad to have put something between herself and the cocoon.  
  
"What are you doing?" Yu felt she was asking this a lot of her sister, lately, who was leaning her head against the door, a grim expression on her face. She really didn't like this 'Sa thinks deeply' aspect her sister seemed to have developed overnight. "We have to tell everyone about...."  
  
"And what are they going to do about it?" Sa grumbled.  
  
"Well.... I don't know. I don't think any of them have experienced anything like this before."  
  
Well, Yu, that was one hell of an understatement, I'm sure. Sa really didn't believe that she had to take her sister step-by-step through the 'what happens next' guide to life as a Haibane. "In which case, they're going to tell the Haibane Renmei, aren't they?"  
  
"Well, I suppose so...."  
  
"What are they going to do to Ketsu, then?" Sa turned to her sister, using the question as a punchline. "What will the Haibane Renmei do to Ketsu? Those cries we heard.... What if the Haibane Renmei punish Ketsu in some way, for some reason? Because this is happening, what if they hurt her?"  
  
"They didn't do that the last time?" Yu shrugged.  
  
"What?"  
  
"The house mother told me what happened the last time someone was born near that painting Rakka found.... They didn't punish the Haibane, or anything. I mean, not at first...."  
  
Sa grabbed Yu's shoulders tightly. "So, you mean they DID?"  
  
Yu was a little intimidated by Sa's sudden intensity. "Well, not because of anything like this. Not that I was told...."  
  
"Not that you were told, yeah." Sa let her go. "So, did the house mother tell you about anything like this?"  
  
"No. Unless I missed something when I dozed off. That old lady has got staying power.... She was still prattling on when I woke up." Yu scratched her head. "Though I don't know when that was, so it could have been a few minutes or a few hours...."  
  
"Which means you don't know everything. Which means this could mean anything. Which is a lot of unknown 'means', if you know what I mean."  
  
Yu chewed things over in the silence that followed. Anything other than look her sister in the eyes when she got that superior expression. "I don't really see what we can do about it, though. I mean, it isn't like we can hide the cocoon from everybody, so they won't know what is going on."  
  
"The crates that are in the courtyard. We can hide the cocoon behind them." Sa crossed her arms and nodded, smiling at her carefully laid plan. Not as carefully as Yu liked.  
  
"Yeah, but...." Yu shook her head. "There are so many, and they're heavy. It took all those workmen ages to carry them out there. The pair of us can't do it alone. Not even in a day."  
  
Sa was not one to be put off so easily. "What is everyone going to think if we start nicking off with the crates, back to this room?"  
  
"They're going to think we're stockpiling all the stuff for ourselves, for you to muck around with the gadgets and for me to sell stuff at the market...."  
  
"Yeeeessss." Sa nodded, superciliously. "Nice to see you're finally joining the party, sis. They wouldn't think twice about it. About the worst they can do is tell us off. Won't stop us, will it?"  
  
"What if they offer to help us?" Yu crossed her arms and looked away, feeling like she was being lead into something she really didn't want to be a part of. "Someone might feel sorry for us, or be interested in what we find."  
  
"Who the hell is going to help us with that lot? I mean, I ask you.... Who would be stupid enough to help us carry all of that back into here?"  
  
"What are you two up to?" The voice might have been fairly soft, but both twins just about set the high jump record when they heard it. They stared at Hana for a few moments with obviously guilty expressions as she looked from one to the other. "Aren't you two dressed, yet? Breakfast is going to be ready in about ten minutes. And Yu...." She looked from Yu to Sa, not quite sure which one she should be addressing. "Rakka-oneesan wants to talk to you about scaring Ketsu-oneesan this morning. She looked really cross." And the sooner I get out of here, the better things are going to be for me, because you two look like you're planning to make my immediate future really, really difficult.  
  
Sa looked at Yu. Yu looked back at Sa. Hana's worst fears were being confirmed in their minds.  
  
"Hana-chan.... Would you like to help your oneesans this morning? We've got some work to do." Sa smiled as she leaned forward, almost towering over the younger girl.  
  
Hana shrunk from them, feeling nervous as they did their best to put on winning smiles. The sky-falling-on-head feeling had turned into sky-has-fallen-and-you-have-concussion-and-a-cracked-skull. "What?"  
  
"It's very important." Yu put a finger to her lips. "You mustn't tell anyone about it, or else Ketsu-oneesan might get in trouble." And with that, Yu guided Hana towards the door to the storeroom as Sa moved it out of the way once more.  
  
----o  
  
Kana arrived at the edge of the township, feeling exhausted as the bike came close to slipping its chain as she bounced over the cobblestones. The day was already starting to warm up rather quickly, and she could feel humidity in the air. Looking around and up at the sky, she could see a few whispy clouds forming in view, just above the wall. "Gonna be a sticky one." She mumbled to herself, as she rode into the central square, haphazardly avoiding townsfolk who seemed to step into her path all too easily. She skirted the fountain in the middle of the square and aimed for the shop underneath the clock tower.  
  
She parked outside the front door and dismounted, checking to see if it was open. Even though she was early, sometimes her boss would like to catch her out by getting there even earlier. It lead to her wondering if he had a social life outside making and repairing clocks.  
  
It was locked. She shrugged and walked the bike around to the service entrance, pulling out a key. She was about to unlock the door when a young woman she recognised as one of the girls who worked at the town haberdashery called to her from the entrance to the lane. "Kana, is it?"  
  
Kana turned to her and nodded. She'd met the girl, named Maria, only once or twice, mostly through her being related to Kana's boss. Maria trotted up to Kana, breathing heavily as she did so. It seemed she had run quite some distance. "You could tell by the wings, could ya?" Kana chuckled as she twirled the key-ring on a finger. Maria stopped and placed her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath.  
  
"Uh, yeah...." Maria stood up and wiped sweat from her forehead. "My uncle sent me.... He asked if it would be okay if you looked after the shop, today."  
  
"Hmm." Kana raised an eyebrow. "The old man is starting to feel his age, is he?" She chuckled. "Be the only reason he'd trust me with his shop."  
  
"No, its...." Maria looked down at the ground, trying to find the words. "A friend of his.... died last night."  
  
"Oh...." Kana stopped twirling the key. "I'm sorry." She looked around awkwardly, not sure what to say, next. "Who...."  
  
"A close friend. You might have met them before, I'm not sure." Maria gestured to the door. "Open up. I'll tell you everything inside."  
  
----o  
  
"Now Hana has disappeared." Hikari grumbled as she chewed on her pancake and took a swig of tea to wash it down. "That pair have probably kidnapped her and sold her to the thrift shop, or something."  
  
"Come on, they aren't that bad." Rakka watched as Hikari leaned back in her chair. "Though this is all going to go cold if they don't appear soon."  
  
"Can I have another cup of tea?" Ketsu looked hopefully from the bed, shakily holding up a cup from her lap. "Better not to waste everything if they aren't going to put in an appearance, isn't it?"  
  
Hikari sighed and was about to get up when the door to the common room slammed open, both twins with Hana in tow racing into the room. Sa grabbed a plate and some of the remaining pancakes as Yu grabbed the tea tray, with pot, sugar, milk and remaining cups aboard. They then beat a hasty retreat, leaving Hana to make apologies.  
  
"Sorry. Sorry. Stuff to do and all...." She bowed to them and followed the twins from the room. Three sets of eyes watched them disappear before Hikari settled back in her chair, staring at the ceiling.  
  
"They'll probably sell the whole tea set, along with Hana." Hikari sighed.  
  
"I take back what I say. They are as bad as you say." Rakka shook her head, reminded of what Hana had said about always getting into trouble when the twins were around, and grabbed the last of the pancakes with her fork, stuffing half of it into her mouth.  
  
"I guess there won't be any more tea, then." Ketsu looked forlornly at her cup with bleary eyes. "Probably a good thing. I'm feeling kinda tired at the moment."  
  
"Which is exactly why it was better for you to stay in bed." Hikari huffed. "I said as much to you. It's too soon for you to be running about."  
  
"Yeah, yeah.... I...." Ketsu swayed for a second, her cup falling from her fingers onto the bedspread. "I'm really...."  
  
Rakka almost swallowed her pancake the wrong way as she jumped from her chair, and was coughing and thumping her chest as she crossed the room, just as Ketsu toppled sideways towards the floor. Rakka managed to grab her before she was off the bed and cradled her as she first quivered, then went stiff, her eyes rolling upwards so far that only her whites could be seen. Her face was pale as Rakka lifted her back onto the bed.  
  
Hikari was at Rakka's side a second later. "What.... What's happening. It almost looks like she's had a fit."  
  
"I don't know." Rakka looked back up at Hikari as she placed a hand on Ketsu's forehead. "She's really hot. It might be the fever coming on. I'm not sure. Get a cold, wet towel."  
  
Hikari nodded and raced into the kitchen as Ketsu started to settle, her muscles relaxing and the colour coming back to her face. Rakka held Ketsu's wrist and checked her pulse. At least she had one, and it was regular.  
  
Rakka rolled Ketsu on her side and opened up the ties on the back of the girl's nightdress, checking the bulges on her shoulder blades. They were larger than before, but not yet distending the skin too far. It would have been a couple of hours before Ketsu entered the fever. A hand holding wet towel appeared in front of her face and she took it from Hikari, cradling Ketsu in one arm and gently applying it across the girl's forehead.  
  
"I told her not to push it too hard." Hikari kneeled next to Rakka. "I told her."  
  
"Yes, you did." Rakka grumbled, impatiently. "But she hasn't moved an inch from the bed since yesterday, so you can say she took your advice, in retrospect." Ketsu's eyes were now closed, so she opened an eyelid to see if they were still rolling abnormally. They weren't, but the pupil seemed clouded over, giving a cataract-effect. They eye then moved, slowly, as if Ketsu was following something across the room. Rakka let go of her eyelid and involuntarily looked back, to see if something was there, but there was nothing. She turned back to Ketsu, whose eyes were now half-open and still moving around in a half-daze. And her mouth was moving, as if she were whispering something.  
  
"Is she trying to say something?" Hikari quizzed. Rakka shrugged and leaned an ear closer to Ketsu's mouth, listening carefully.  
  
"If.... her to...." The words were, practically, little more than mouthed, so Rakka had trouble discerning them all. "But I don't.... she is."  
  
"What is she saying?" Hikari asked, quietly.  
  
"I'm not sure. She's babbling, probably."  
  
Rakka was about to lift her head away when Ketsu whispered.... "Rakka.... Rakka, where are...."  
  
"Ketsu?" Rakka turned and stared into Ketsu's eyes. "Ketsu, I'm right here."  
  
Ketsu's mouth stopped moving, but her eyes continued to wander in an unseeing gaze.  
  
**END OF PART 5**  
  
----o  
  
This major rework of the chapter occured because I simply wasn't happy with the original.  
  
DARK DAY FOR ANIME - THE RIGHT DISHONOURABLE MARK A PAGE

FEATHER 2.0: 14th-17th September 2004


	6. Part 6: Visions Paradise Lost

DARK DAY FOR ANIME - THE RIGHT DISHONOURABLE MARK A PAGE  
  
Disclaimer: Blah and blah don't belong to me etc...  
  
----o  
  
Ketsu walked across the field of grass, staring across the landscape, feeling hollow and empty. She was sure she had heard Rakka's voice, but there was no sign of the girl, nor could she tell from which direction the voice had come. So she continued walking, searching for someone, anyone, to appear.  
  
But she knew she was alone, wherever it was she was now. The sky and the grass filled her with uncontrolled waves of blue and green, so bright that all sense of hue was gone and all she could see was monochrome. She placed a hand over her eyes and continued on. There didn't seem to be anything else that she could do.  
  
It was because she wasn't looking that she stumbled across the path of rounded gravel, feeling the crunch of the stones beneath her feet before stopping and looking down. She looked up and down along the length of the thin, white ribbon as it made its way through the landscape, one way up a small hill before disappearing, the other into a stand of trees through which she could see one or two man-made structures. After considering how she couldn't remember seeing the path before she'd shielded her eyes, she decided to follow it into the trees, as that seemed to offer more.... something. Anything. She didn't know what she expected to find. There certainly didn't seem to be any more people there than she'd seen, or felt, beforehand.  
  
She entered the stand and realised that it went in far deeper than she had expected. The path wound its way through the trees and disappeared. The trees were somewhat evenly spaced, as if they had been planted and tended to, though they were fairly random species. She couldn't remember the names for them, no matter how hard she tried. She was sure that she had known what many of them were called. There were large ones with smooth, light trunks and dark, pointy leaves, and smaller ones with long, drooping branches and lighter leaves. There were stubby, bushy plants and tall, straight trees with fairly severe, dark green bristles. And she knew that she had known what they had all been called once. The knowledge was being denied to her, and she didn't like that very much.  
  
Continuing into what now seemed to be a small forest, the path turned as it approached a monument. Well, that was what it seemed like to her. Stones arranged like a cairn, cemented together with a large metal plaque near the top. She moved closer to see what was on the plaque, but it was empty. A monument unfinished, incomplete, its intention forgotten. It was a monument to nothing, on a path that seemed to lead nowhere, in a world where there seemed to be no-one. Ketsu touched the plaque, as if she felt she would gain something from doing so. All she felt was its cold metal surface. She turned and continued on along the path.  
  
Another turn and a small house appeared from behind the trees. Red brick with a high, sloping roof of orange-red ceramic tiles, covered in moss, plain wooden front door and small, functional windows with frames flaking white paint, she made her way up to one of the windows and tried to peer in. A net curtain made things difficult, but the room beyond seemed to be empty. Walking up to the door, she tried the handle. The door opened, though somewhat reluctantly, as if the hinges hadn't been used in some time. She peered into the front hall of the house, but it, too, was empty. No decorations, no furnishings. Nothing. An empty shell, waiting for an occupant, waiting for someone to make something of it. But there was nobody here, except herself.  
  
She wondered if she should settle into the house. It didn't seem too bad an idea. But she shook her head and shut the door, turning from it and walking away, not looking back. The house had a history, but that history was gone, now.  
  
----o  
  
**An Haibane Renmei Fanfiction  
  
Red Feathers in Old Home  
  
by Dark Day For Anime  
  
Part 6  
  
Visions - Paradise - Lost**  
  
----o  
  
"What happens to them?" Kana asked softly as she unlocked the front door to the clock repairs shop. Maria, who was sitting on a perch behind the counter, looked up from some of the paperwork her uncle had asked her to retrieve, blankly.  
  
"What?"  
  
"What happens to people. From Glie, I mean, when they die?" Kana turned, and without looking at Maria, made her way back to the small office behind the desk. Maria watched her as she grabbed a broom from the office and started to sweep the floor of the shop's customer area.  
  
"I dunno. I guess they go where everyone else goes. Where the Haibane go. Maybe. I've never thought about it before. In Glie, you're born, you live and you die. What happens next is the great unknown and unknowable." She shrugged and folded the paperwork into a neat bundle, placing them into a leather satchel, which she then zipped up and placed under her right arm. "Does it worry you? I didn't know Haibane thought about such things."  
  
Kana stopped sweeping and leaned against the broom handle, thinking for a few moments. Then she shrugged and started again. "I've had friends leave Old Home. People I got to know well. Most of you seem to forget them when they're gone, because Haibane and townsfolk don't really get to know each other that well. It's the rules, for the most part. But Haibane.... I'm not sure. They don't die, as such, but you never see them again. It feels like they've died...."  
  
"Does it worry you? That one day you're going to follow them, and you don't know when?"  
  
"I don't think that really matters. I mean, none of us know when it will be our turn to leave." Kana opened the front door and started brushing what little dust she'd collected into the square. "I don't know if I'd really ever managed to get close enough to any of them to think about them for long. I don't like thinking about the past, anyway. It only makes you realise how much you've lost, and that isn't my style at all." And with a flourish she banished the dust into the world and closed the door to it, trotting back to the office to quickly store away the broom. "So...." She said as she shut the office door. "What are the arrangements?"  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
"You know...." Kana felt a little awkward about asking this. "For the funeral."  
  
"Oohh...." Maria nodded. "It.... will be in a couple of days. Depending on the family, of course. This has thrown them right off.... Naturally enough. The grandson, Kei, is making the arrangements."  
  
"Hmmm...." Kana brushed down her work apron with her hands. "I wonder if they'll let us attend. I'm not sure on the rules of this, whether Haibane are allowed to attend funerals or not."  
  
"I'm sure you're allowed. The family would be happy for you to...."  
  
----o  
  
Occasionally she would feel as if she were being watched, but there would be nothing there when she would turn. It felt like having people call out to her, then run and hide before she could respond. It leant a slightly eerie air to the shady glades, the bright sun only just peering through the treetops. Ketsu continued along the path, trying to ignore the distractions. More houses and buildings of other descriptions. More monuments, even fountains and wells, all following the path, all seemingly clean and tended, but otherwise abandoned and unused, with no sign of ever having been used. Their purpose simply seemed to be to exist, without reason.  
  
A bit like myself, Ketsu thought. A bit like everyone.  
  
She approached a turn in the path, now heavily lined with the tall, rigid, dark-green trees and the lighter ones with long weeping branches, and came upon a small hall, much like all the other buildings she'd passed, only much neater, much cleaner, as if it had only just been built, but out of old, second-hand materials. The path went past nearby the front entrance, but something tempted her to stop. Near the double front doors was a fountain, barely trickling water, like the pressure had been turned down. At the stop of the fountain was a crudely carved figure, that of someone with stubby wings and a rough halo. From this figure's outstretched palms, the water trickled down into the plain, round base pool. The water below was clear, fresh. She approached it, and could smell the freshness of the water, tinged with a slight metallic tang. She wasn't sure what the smell was. She looked back up at the figure, and saw that the water emanated from the wrists into the hands before falling into the pond. Like blood from cut wrists. She shivered and looked down into the pool....  
  
She had no reflection.  
  
She recoiled, then looked down at her feet, which, in her perception, were still there, but how could she be sure that she even existed? Maybe everyone in this world was invisible, which was why she couldn't find anyone. She patted herself down, to make sure. The tactile sensations registered, but were they real? Was she real? She slowly stepped back up to the pool and looked in. She now had a reflection, as if confirming her existence also confirmed it.  
  
Her face was partly round, partly thin. Her skin was pale and she had deep, dark eyes that were close to black.... Trying to define the division between the pupil and the iris was difficult. The thick, dark lashes around her eyes, however, did strike a sharp border and gave her an intense expression that she found somewhat discomforting. She brushed a hand along her long, dark hair, as if recognising it for the first time. Her body seemed thin and small underneath her clothes. How young was she? How old was she? She didn't seem to know. All in all, she didn't think she liked the way she looked very much. Then she noticed them. Protruding just over her shoulders, the tips of two small, grey wings. And just above her head, a dimly glowing halo.  
  
She reached up and felt the halo. It was smooth and warm, and seemed to be spinning gently on its own axis. Trying to stop it caused the hair on the top of her head to stick up with static, so she let it go and peered over her shoulder at her wings. She flexed her shoulder muscles and felt another set of muscles working. The wings flapped, shaking off a couple of loose feathers. She tried it again, feeling for the new muscles, and found she could flap the wings at will.  
  
Unfortunately, they were bloody useless. She doubted they were big, or strong, enough to lift her from the ground. Unless, of course, her bones had become honeycomb and lightweight. And even then, she doubted they would work. She wondered what the point of them was.... Both the wings and the halo. There had to be a point to them, some useful function.... She looked up at the figure, with the strange, blood-scented water trickling from its wrists. Was that her? A crude, ceramic version of herself? She stared at the figure, but it was hard to see, apart from the wings and halo, whether there was anything else that represented her.  
  
'So, I have wings and a halo.' She thought to herself. 'What does that make me? What the hell am I, even less, where the hell am I?' She turned to the hall's double front doors. Large, wooden and plain, they weren't particularly inviting, but she stepped up to them and placed her hands on the latch anyway. It clicked open without effort, but the doors were, like the previous house door she had tried, quite stiff on their hinges. A rush of warm air struck her as the inside bled into the outside air. For a moment, she felt as if her inner self had been laid bare. She shook off the feeling as the doors opened wide, revealing the interior of the hall.  
  
There were two small side rooms, little more than closet-sized, bordering the entranceway. Further in, the hall opened up into a huge, empty space, much like a church without its pews and altar. All along both sides of the hall, large leadlight windows cast a multicoloured glow onto the plain wooden floor. And at the far end, she could see what appeared to be a figure, cowled in a hood and cloak, kneeling before the far wall as if in prayer.  
  
She stepped into the hall, through the entranceway, and looked from side to side at the leadlighting. Like almost everything else, there were no defined patterns in the coloured glass, merely a bright chiaroscuro representing nothing. Slowly, she made her way into the hall, her shoes creaking the floorboards, as she approached the figure, who made no sign of registering her presence.  
  
The feeling she had had earlier, of not being able to sense anyone around her, remained. It was as if this person did not exist, was not real. Yet they seemed all too real as she stood behind them, waiting and watching for.... she didn't know what. She only just resisted the temptation to tap them on the shoulder....  
  
----o  
  
Kumiko entered the courtyard of Old Home for the second time in two days, looking slightly less than her usual, professional self. This visit wasn't for business, and she took a long breath as she exited the archway.  
  
At the other end of the courtyard, the twins and Hana were loading a couple of the crates onto a trolley they had found somewhere. Putting on a grim smile, she approached them and was within a good twelve feet before they saw her. Both twins looked at each other and quickly wheeled the crates away before she had a chance to say anything. Hana bowed to her in apology and followed in their steps, leaving Kumiko shaking her head in bemusement.  
  
"There are times when they should call this place the 'Mad House'...." She turned and looked up at the balcony. The doors were partly open and she could hear voices. Steeling herself once more, she made her way into the building.  
  
----o  
  
"Excuse me...." Ketsu began after clearing her throat. The figure's head twitched, causing a soft, jangling sound, but they didn't turn. "I just want to ask you a couple of things." She knelt down beside the figure and could see that their mouth was covered by what looked like bandages. There seemed to be small bells hanging from threads, dangling either side of the figure's head, from underneath the hood. There also seemed to be small bells on the collars of the cloak's sleeves. Ketsu bit her lower lip and backed up, slowly. "Though you probably won't be able to tell me, even if you did know the answers."  
  
She turned and was about to stand when the figure clasped a hand around her right wrist. She looked back and the figure was staring at her, though she couldn't see their eyes in the darkness underneath the hood. The size and strength of the hand made Ketsu think that they were possibly male, certainly someone bigger and stronger than she was. She panicked for a second and wrenched her hand from their grasp, falling back onto the floor before standing and putting some distance between them.  
  
She gazed warily at the figure, who did not move for minutes in what seemed, to Ketsu, like a kind of silent standoff. She felt herself trapped within the hall, and a sense of panic, the urge to run, started to build up within her. Then he turned back and gestured to the wall. "What?" Ketsu could feel her feet take a couple more steps back and stared at the wall. "What is it?" Her voice sounded strangled with fear, which she tried to suppress. Nothing had happened. He wasn't trying to hurt her.... Wasn't going to lay a finger on her.....  
  
The figure gestured to the wall once more, and blood shot from their wrist, coating the wall. Ketsu put a hand up to her face in shock. "Oh sh...." She swallowed as more and more blood sprayed from the figure: now his face, chest and abdomen were belching red across the wall. Eventually, the spray settled and he collapsed to the floor.  
  
She stared at the blood, feeling acid rise in her throat, she turned to run. The way out was in darkness. The darkness that was chasing her, reaching out to hurt her. She looked around for a way out, but the darkness had that way covered. It surged forward, eagerly looking to engulf her, when it struck a patch of red light from the lead-lighting. The darkness writhed and shot back out through the doors, which slammed shut behind it.  
  
Ketsu's legs collapsed underneath her and she sat hard onto the floor, giving her tailbone a whack. She breathed heavily as she rubbed her sore lower back and looked across to where the figure had been. Both he and his sprayed blood were gone. For some reason, it didn't surprise her.  
  
She turned and stared across the floor of the hall. Wherever the lead-lighting cast a red glow lay an equally red feather.  
  
----o  
  
The door to the common room slammed shut as Hikari raced past Kumiko. "Oh, hi...." Hikari said, spinning round to face her. "Sorry. Rakka wants me to see if the house mother has some medicine, or something.... The new girl will probably need some later. Gotta go." And with a little wave, Hikari disappeared down the corridor.  
  
Kumiko sighed and walked up to the common room door, knocking gently. "Haaaaiiii...." Came a reply, and she slowly opened it, peering in. Rakka was kneeling beside the bed with Ketsu lying on her front, breathing heavily.  
  
"I've.... I've come at a bad time, haven't I?"  
  
"Kind of." Rakka applied a wet cloth to Ketsu's forehead. "The fever is starting."  
  
"Her wings...." Kumiko swallowed.  
  
Memories of her little Haibane sister, crying helplessly on her bed at home, entered Kumiko's mind. She was so young at the time, and knew nothing about the Haibane. She'd stayed by Chigusa's side as the girl went through what appeared to her young eyes as the worst of tortures. And she watched, horrified, as those wings pierced her skin, exploding outwards, spraying blood and oils across the room, flexing horribly.... painfully.... And Chigusa's cry of agony as they did....  
  
Kumiko was rooted to the spot, unable to tear her eyes away from Ketsu's back as Rakka loosened the ties that held the nightdress in place, peeling it back and exposing the welts where the wings were starting to push. "Kumiko-san?" Rakka's voice brought her round.  
  
"What?"  
  
"I'm sorry you came all this way to see this. It isn't very pleasant." Rakka stepped back to the table, where the medical box was sitting, and started to rifle through it, pulling out a roll of gauze.  
  
"I've.... seen this happen before. Remember?"  
  
Rakka turned to Kumiko, whose face had turned pale. "Are you sure you're alright?"  
  
"I'll be fine." Kumiko looked around the room. "As soon as I sit down." And with that, she made her way to a chair and practically collapsed into it.  
  
----o  
  
Ketsu reached forward and picked up the nearest feather. The redness did not change out of the light. In fact, the feather seemed to glow even brighter without it. There was a warmth emanating from the feather and Ketsu held it to her. The hall was filled with the deep blood-red light, and then....  
  
----o  
  
In the storeroom, Hana and the twins had managed to ring the regenerating cocoon with stacks of crates at least two-high before they'd thought of taking a breather. All three were already exhausted and they'd barely started the job. The heat and humidity of the day was also rising, quite rapidly, and the room, despite being larger than most rooms in Old Home, was feeling dusty and stuffy.  
  
"You know...." Hana slumped down against the wall after helping Yu heave up the last crate. "....When the others find out about this, they're going to be really, really angry." She crossed her arms and huffed.  
  
"Of course they are." Sa grinned. "I wouldn't be doing this, otherwise."  
  
"Yeah. She's a complete nutter who likes being beaten to an inch of her life." Yu glowered at her sister. "Anyway, who says they're going to find out?"  
  
"Well...." Hana pointed at the cocoon. "It's glowing even more brightly, now. It might do something, like explode, or something like that." That sky-about-to-fall feeling was setting in for the day.  
  
"Don't be stupid." Sa wiped sweat off her forehead and looked across the crates at the cocoon. "It isn't going to explode. I think."  
  
And the cocoon exploded.  
  
----o  
  
The house mother tutted as she rifled through the medicine cabinet in the kitchen of her living space. "Honestly.... I've never known a Haibane to need medicine during this time, before." She looked over her shoulder at Hikari. "In the middle of class, too.... The kids are probably running amok, as usual." Hikari laughed with embarassment, pushing her glasses further up her nose.  
  
The walls and floor vibrated for a second, and they both looked at each other. "What was...." Hikari managed to get out, before she heard a cry....  
  
----o  
  
Just at that moment, Ketsu let out a piercing cry, which shocked both Rakka and Kumiko. Trickles of blood started to run from small cuts in the welts on her back. Rakka knelt down beside Ketsu, wrapping the gauze around her right thumb as she glanced back at Kumiko. "A small trick taught to me by a friend. Helps to stop the newborn from biting their tongue, or something like that." Rakka turned back and help Ketsu's head up in her left hand. Ketsu's eyes were unfocused, but the pain seemed to be bringing her around.  
  
"Rak...ka?" She panted. "What.... Ughhhh...." She spasmed as larger tears appeared in the welts. Rakka held her gauze-wrapped thumb into her face.  
  
"Bite this. When it starts to hurt bad, bite really hard."  
  
"But.... I'll hurt you." Ketsu's eyes turned to Rakka. They still seemed somewhat clouded-over. Rakka shook her head and did her best to smile, kindly.  
  
Ketsu looked down at the thumb and leaned her head forward, opening her teeth. Then there was a ripping sound and she spasmed again, her teeth latching onto the thumb hard. Rakka fell back as Ketsu's jaw muscles worked repeatedly, drilling her teeth into the gauze again and again. Kumiko let out a short cry as small splashes of blood sprayed across the bedsheets....  
  
"Chigusa...." She placed a hand over her mouth as two blood-covered.... things.... slowly squeezed their way out of Ketsu's back. Ketsu's entire body was quivering as they now obviously formed a wing-shape. The tips of the wings flicked away from the skin, and the wings spasmed outwards, pulling on muscles that had never been used, and ripping further into already-damaged skin. Just as the wings flexed, Hikari ran in in time to hear Ketsu cry out once more, before she passed out and the joints of the blood-splattered wings settled into their sockets, holding them in place. Already, the skin around the exit wound was starting to seal over with an unnatural speed.  
  
The three of them looked at Ketsu in a shocked silence, before Hikari ran into the kitchen. Kumiko managed to stand from her chair and made her way across the room to Rakka, who was still holding her right hand up to Ketsu, the girl's teeth having let go of her thumb, but one of her hands had grabbed Rakka's wrist and her head was now nuzzled against it. Kumiko knelt down beside Rakka, whose face, expressionless in the aftermath, had been sprayed with some of the blood. Kumiko reached into the coat of her business suit and pulled out a handkerchief and started to wipe some of the blood away. Rakka didn't respond for quite some time.  
  
"That...." Kumiko whispered to her. "....Still takes some getting used to, it seems."  
  
Rakka turned her face to Kumiko and smiled. "I think I'm stuck. She's not letting go of my hand."  
  
Kumiko reached up and gently prised Ketsu's fingers away from Rakka's right hand, unwrapping the gauze from her thumb. Ketsu had done her best to part Rakka with her thumb, but all she'd managed to achieve were a few layers of broken skin and some deep indentations. "Better clean that up." Kumiko helped Rakka to her feet. "Then we can clean her wings off."  
  
----o  
  
It wasn't much of a blast, more like a shedding of its outer shell. But it still blew Hana and the twins across the room. They stopped when they hit the wall, where they lay dazed for a few moments, before Hana crawled up to Yu and latched onto her, screwing her eyes shut. Even then, she could 'feel' what was happening. All three of them could. They could feel the presence that had emerged from the cocoon.  
  
Sa and Yu watched as the powdered remains, which had clouded the room, cleared away to the corners. The cocoon was still glowing, but more faintly, now. In front of the cocoon was the floating figure of Ketsu. She was clothed, in a dark jacket, shirt and shorts and large, heavy-looking shoes, and she had a halo and the wings of a Haibane. Her hands were clenched around the end of what looked like a red feather.  
  
"Ketsu?" Sa whispered, and the girl opened her eyes, regarding all three dispassionately.  
  
"Ketsu." She repeated, as if learning the word for the first time. "So, that is who I am, this time. I am.... Ketsu." The figure straightened out and threw the feather in front of her. It exploded in a shower of sparks, making Hana and the twins cry out in surprise and turn away.  
  
Only Sa was brave enough to open her eyes to see what happened next. Ketsu held out her arms and closed her eyes, smiling. Her hair changed colour, becoming blond, and her wings enlarged, turning a bright shade of red, much like the feather she had been holding. And her eyes.... turned a deep shade of crimson. "One feather, Ketsu." Now her size and features changed, to become someone completely different. To become the person who had been in the painting Rakka had found.  
  
The cocoon glowed brightly once more, rendering the new figure little more than a silhouette, and the powder re-emerged to fill the room again, this time imploding. A great inrush of air from outside rushed past them before everything fell silent. The figure that had first appeared as Ketsu now gone. Sa got to her feet and crept back towards the cocoon, which had gone dormant. Hana and Yu had opened their eyes and were watching her. "Sa.... be careful...." Yu whispered, but Sa was ignoring her. She climbed over the crates and moved right up to the cocoon, daring to touch it.  
  
**BRRRRRRRRRAAAAARRRRRAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAARARRRRAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR.....**  
  
Sa snatched her hand away. The noise hadn't been so much a vibration as a sound in her mind, much like the cries had been.... She climbed back over the crates and bounded over to where her sister was helping Hana to her feet, feeling a great deal of excitement.  
  
"Man, that was so COOL!" She jumped up and down and glomped the both of them. "Did you see that? That was just the coolest thing ever. I wish my cocoon had been like this one."  
  
"Yes, Sa. Very good, Sa." Yu held Hana's shoulders as Sa let go of them. The younger girl was staring, transfixed, at the cocoon, her face an unreadable mask. Her lack of reaction worried Yu, somewhat. She turned back to Sa, starting to feel annoyed. "Would you like to remind us just why the hell we're doing this?"  
  
"What do you mean?" Sa let them go, nonplussed.  
  
"What do I mean? Honestly, Sa.... Do you think either me or Hana are going to go on with this after what just happened?"  
  
"Well, be like that, then. I doubt you'll ever see anything else like it."  
  
"And I doubt I'll want to see anything else like it." Yu shook her head. "Now, do you think it might be a good time to tell the others about this?"  
  
Sa bit her lower lip. "Nothing has changed." Yu looked at her, disbelievingly, then shook her head.  
  
"I'd like to see what would constitute things changing." Yu's flat tone belied her sarcasm.  
  
"Look.... It doesn't change the fact that it involves Ketsu, somehow.... You saw that much...."  
  
"Well, yeah...." Yu started, before Sa ran over to where the trolley was lying, picking it up. "It also doesn't change what we've both heard. If anyone found out about this, then Ketsu could be in really deep doo doo...."  
  
"Or we could be. I doubt anyone in Old Home failed to hear that." Yu was about to deliver her sister a tirade before Hana let go of her and walked up to Sa, her face a dark mask of fury the likes of which Sa had never seen before. Sa had practically withered underneath the gaze when Hana slapped her hard across the face, much to both the twins surprise.  
  
"Now I feel better." She smiled at Sa, who held a hand up to her stinging cheek. "Now, are we going to finish building this barricade, or not?"  
  
"But...." Yu's mouth hung open. "After what happened, you...."  
  
Hana turned to her, putting hands on hips. "Sa-oneechan is right. Who knows what they'll do to Ketsu-oneechan if they find out about this. I won't let them hurt her."  
  
"Hana-chan...." Yu ventured, before realising there was an odd kind of zeal in Hana's eyes. A chord had been struck in her 'sense of justice' gland once more....  
  
----o  
  
Kumiko watched as Rakka brushed away the blood and grease on Ketsu's wings, and remembered the time when she had done the same for Chigusa. Rakka noticed her watching and smiled at her. "Penny for your thoughts."  
  
"Hmm?" Kumiko blinked, brought out of her reverie. "Oh, just thoughts of the past."  
  
Hikari stuck her head out of the kitchen. "You know, about now I'd offer you tea.... But the twins took off with the teapot and haven't brought it back. So you're going to have to deal with coffee. Granulated, no less."  
  
Kumiko shook her head. "It doesn't matter. We'll probably need something fairly strong after this."  
  
"Hmmm...." Hikari shrugged. "I'm so going to be toast at the bakery, so to speak. This is the second day I'm not going to show up for work in a row...." She paused for a moment. "By the way, did either of you feel.... well.... did things shake in here just as Ketsu's wings started to pop out? It felt like an earth tremor, when I was in the house mother's lodgings." Both Rakka and Kumiko looked blankly at her. "Oh well...." Hikari shrugged. "It was probably the twins blowing up the teapot, or something." And she ducked back into the kitchen.  
  
A few moments passed as they listened to the kettle starting to boil in the kitchen, before Rakka spoke. "Kumiko.... Is there a reason you came to see us today? Are you still needing me for the festival, or something?"  
  
Kumiko swallowed as she remembered. "Oh.... No. It isn't anything like that. It's just...." She looked uncomfortable. "I just wanted to bring you the news. It isn't very good news, though."  
  
"What?" Rakka stopped brushing and stared at Kumiko, who felt put on the spot.  
  
"Ummm...." She tried to think of the right way to say this. "Fujita.... The builder who was here yesterday. He...."  
  
"What? He can't come round to do the repair work to Old Home, after all?" Hikari stepped out of the kitchen, holding two mugs. "That would be s shame.... After all the inspection work he did yesterday. What is it? An important job, or something?"  
  
"No." Kumiko took a long breath. "He died last night, at his home. Apparently of a heart attack...."  
  
There was a very long silence that followed.  
  
**END OF PART 6**  
  
----o  
  
And thusly, from the little bits of the original second half of part 5 was born part 6.... I really wasn't all that happy with the way the original part 5 went. I was trying to get through too much too quickly, and only ended up putting together a rush job.... Which was why these chapters took so bloody long to finish.  
  
As you can tell, I like meandering through stories. This chapter is one long meander. The original series was also one long meander, but that isn't, necessarily, a bad thing....  
  
This chapter was also written, predominantly, through the hard-drive crisis of September 17, where my trusty old steam-powered pc decided to lunch itself during a bittorrent batch file download. (Kokoro Library, if you must know). I'll probably pack it in and get it from someone else. I'm just hoping that everything else on the three hard drives is still in basic working order. Though I'm not entirely hopeful....  
  
Cheers  
  
DARK DAY FOR ANIME - THE RIGHT DISHONOURABLE MARK A PAGE

FEATHER 2.0: 14th-18th September 2004


	7. Part 7: Dialogue Temple Perception

DARK DAY FOR ANIME - THE RIGHT DISHONOURABLE MARK A PAGE  
  
Disclaimer: Blah and blah don't belong to me etc...  
  
----o  
  
Ketsu could feel the feather, floating within her mind. Its presence was comforting, to a certain extent, and she decided that the hall would be a good place for her to stay.  
  
The rays of the sun shone through the lead-light windows in a ripple of colours across the simple wooden board floor, where she had been sitting for.... She couldn't remember how long. It didn't seem to matter, though.... This was a place she was going to get to know, even if there didn't seem to be much for her to discover, she was sure the hall had a myriad of hidden depths.  
  
Her eyes moved around the walls of the hall, searching for those hidden depths. Plainly painted white, intersected by the entranceway at one end and the windows on either side, met her gaze. Nothing. There didn't seem to be anything there that could possibly keep her interest. She looked up at the ceiling, high and steeply sloped, it was crossed by a regular sequence of beams, radiating from the side walls to a central beam that ran along the length of the hall. All were made of aged wood that she couldn't quite name. It didn't seem to matter, though. Everything was well-constructed. For the time being.  
  
She studied the entranceway. The big double doors were closed, so most of it was in shadow. On either side of the entranceway were two small doors, leading to, what had to be, considering the short length of the entranceway, cupboard-sized anterooms. She looked down at her legs, which seemed reluctant to work, and gave them the best admonishing stare. Within moments, she was standing, and making her way over to the entrance, stopping by the door to the anteroom on her left. She gripped the handle and turned it, the door opening without protest. Inside, it was dark, and dusty. She sniffed the dust, sneezing a couple of times. She liked the scent of dust, for some reason. There was a comforting sensation to the age it seemed to bestow upon the place.  
  
The darkness of the anteroom wasn't helping. Even with the light coming from the windows, it was hard to see what was inside, so she reached around the edge of the doorway, feeling for a lightswitch. Her hand ran up and down where one should have been, but she couldn't find one, until she became frustrated, and suddenly her hand landed upon something that, seconds earlier, had not been there.  
  
She withdrew the hand, not sure of what to do next. She didn't like little surprises.... But she had wanted there to be a light in the anteroom, and so there was one. She reached back in again and felt the object, pushing down on the central nodule. There was a click, and dim light filled the anteroom.  
  
There were cupboards there. Small ones, to be sure, running along the inner wall of the anteroom, but it was more than she was expecting. At the far end, there was a wooden chair. A rather hard-looking, straight-backed one, but a chair all the same. She looked around the hall and wondered what she would do with the chair. After all, where she would put it, and such. or should she just leave it in the anteroom, for it to continue to gather dust....  
  
"If I were you." Said Rakka. "I'd use the chair."  
  
She spun to see Rakka, standing a few feet from the entranceway in the hall. Rakka smiled, holding her hands in front of her shyly.  
  
"I doubt you'd want to leave the chair in the room." Rakka went on. "Not after all the effort you put in to make it."  
  
----o  
  
**An Haibane Renmei Fanfiction  
  
Red Feathers in Old Home  
  
by Dark Day For Anime  
  
Part 7  
  
Dialogue - Temple - Perception**  
  
----o  
  
"Rakka...." Ketsu didn't know what else to say at that point. She simply threw herself at the girl and wrapped her arms around her waist, falling to her knees. Rakka seemed momentarily surprised, but smiled and placed a hand on Ketsu's head.  
  
"You seem rather pleased to see me."  
  
Ketsu looked up into her face. "Of course I am." There were tears forming in her eyes. "Where did you go? You disappeared. We were.... We were...." She had trouble remembering the details. For some reason, they didn't seem entirely important. "We were.... sitting together, in that field, on the grass."  
  
"Yes, we were, weren't we. Wasn't the sun warm?" Rakka gently ran a hand along Ketsu's face. "We were there, but we aren't there, now. No we are here. Are you happy to be here?"  
  
Ketsu swallowed, then pressed her face into Rakka's belly, holding her tightly. "We were there, and you vanished. Why? Why did you leave me?"  
  
"I can't be everywhere at once. But I'm here now."  
  
Ketsu moved away from Rakka, looking up at her searchingly. She hadn't quite let go.... afriad that Rakka might disappear again. Slowly she stood and considered her for a moment. "Yes." She nodded. "You're here, now. Do you feel like staying? It would be good if you could stay."  
  
"I like that." Rakka turned and looked around the hall. "This place feels very warm. It desperately wants there to be someone sheltering within. It certainly wants me to be here. But we have to fill this place with things that would make our stay much more inviting."  
  
Ketsu stepped back and peered over her shoulder at the open door of the anteroom. "We can start with the chair."  
  
"We can start with a lot more than a mere chair. Though that depends on you." Rakka turned back to Ketsu. "What would you like to fill this space with?"  
  
"Perhaps it is best to find out for ourselves." Ketsu gestured to the anteroom, and they both approached the open doorway.  
  
Within, the chair had been joined by bedframes and mattressed, lying on their sides along the length of the anteroom. Ketsu looked at Rakka a moment.  
  
"Is this really possible? For things to appear that weren't there before?"  
  
"They are there. it is possible." Rakka nodded and moved into the anteroom, sidling her way past the bedframes. "I shall take this end." She pointed to the far end of the first bedframe. "And you take the other. We shall move them into the hall. A living space is never quite as comfortable without a place to sleep, wouldn't you say?"  
  
"I don't like sleep very much." Ketsu looked glumly at the bedframe before entering the anteroom and taking hold of her end. "Sleep never seems to bring me much in the way of rest."  
  
"Sleep is never an escape. You still dream." Rakka took hold of her end and they lifted the bedframe, slowly manouevering it out through the doorway and into the hall, where they lay it up against the wall on the other side of the anteroom. They then returned and did the same with the other bedframe, the end sections and the mattresses. They then slotted the bedframes into the end sections, so that the beds were now sitting up of their legs, and lined both up against the walls on the other side of both anterooms. They then placed the mattresses atop the frames and stood back, surveying their work.  
  
"Now we need something to make the beds presentable for sleeping." Rakka turned to Ketsu. "Do you think there might be bedsheets, pillows, blankets or dunas in the cupboards." She nodded towards the anteroom.  
  
"If there must be...." Ketsu crossed her arms. "There must."  
  
And there were. There was nothing else in the cupboards, but exactly what Rakka suggested there should have been. Ketsu didn't feel particularly surprised by this. As she applied the bedsheets and blankets to one of the beds, she watched as Rakka did the same to the other. She tried to gauge what Rakka was thinking. For some reason, she felt uneasy by her simple acceptance of Rakka's appearance, and the simplicity with which Rakka had taken control of the situation.  
  
But then, Rakka was going to protect her. Rakka was the one who had saved her from the darkness. She turned from Rakka and looked at the double entrance doors. The darkness had been in here and had tried to claim her. But she had been saved.... Saved by the red feather.  
  
It rolled through her mind, as if blown by an invisible breeze. She couldn't see where it was, but she could see its every filament, radiating out from the spine. It wasn't entirely uniform in colour.... She didn't expect it to be. But she revelled in the tiny details.... The minute changes in shade, from the base of the feather to its tip, slowly getting lighter as it did so. Lighter and thinner. The outer edges weathered more than the inner ones, protected by the folds of other feathers. She wished she knew where there were more feathers for her to grasp. To have. To keep.  
  
"Are you frightened by what exists outside?" Rakka brought Ketsu out of her reverie.  
  
"Hmm? No." Ketsu shook her head. "I've been out there. I know what exists there. It is quite beautiful, in its own way."  
  
"Yes." Rakka folded her hands in front of her, again. "Yes, in its own way. But there are always warnings for you to follow. Outside is never as safe as inside. Most of the time."  
  
"Most of the time?" Ketsu raised an eyebrow. "When will it ever become dangerous within?"  
  
Rakka took Ketsu's hands and lead her to the doorway. Opening one of the double doors, they stepped outside and up to the side of the fountain. Rakka pointed to the figure at the top of the fountain. "A warning. As calm as the water flows, it also runs with the pain of tears and blood shed."  
  
Ketsu stared at the water, trickling from the outstetched wrists of the figure, into its hands, through its fingers and into the pool below. "It is macabre, but beautiful at the same time. I don't know if I entirely like it."  
  
"It is still crude." Rakka gestured at the figure. "It is, perhaps, better if it remains so. You wouldn't want it to become too similar to your own appearance. If it was to be reshaped in your image, do you think you could live with it?"  
  
Ketsu shook her head. "I wouldn't want such a monument in my own image." She looked around at the trees, nervously. "Outside, I keep feeling something. Someone. Like they are watching me."  
  
"There are others out there."  
  
"But I can't see them. Can't hear them. It is more like a distant echo." She shook her head. "Are there really people out there?"  
  
"Yes. There are many. Just like I am here, and you are here, there are many others. I can see them. I am not afraid of them."  
  
"Not afraid...." Ketsu chewed her lower lip. "Does that mean I am afraid of them?"  
  
"Do you feel afraid?"  
  
"I don't really understand people well." Ketsu searched for the right words. "People do things and behave in a certain way. And I don't know why. I'm not good a reading non-verbal cues, at subtext in language.... I'm not very good at such things." She looked into Rakka's eyes, her expression intense and pleading. "But I can understand you. The communication between us feels simple, even if.... even if...."  
  
Rakka placed a finger on Ketsu's lips, shaking her head. "You understand more than you know. Even if it doesn't come naturally to you."  
  
Ketsu wanted to say more, but the subject had passed. Rakka sat down on the edge of the fountain and placed a hand in the water, gently splashing it against the base of the centrepiece. Ketsu watched for several moments, then sat beside her, turning her gaze to Rakka's fingers, moving the water with a slender grace.  
  
She looked at her own fingers. By comparison, they seemed short, stubby and misshapen. She remembered her reflection, earlier, and how she'd judged her appearance as being less than to her liking. Watching Rakka, now, for all her seeming ordinariness, she seemed perfect. Older than her by several years, she was taller, thinner and more graceful. Her slightly messy, wavy auburn hair fell just short of her shoulders. Ketsu wished she'd had hair that simple. She touched her own long, straight, black locks. They felt hard and wiry. If they had been any rougher, she was sure the strands would cut into her fingers.  
  
"One shouldn't compare oneself to others." Ketsu was brought out of her musings with a start. Rakka was looking at her, still smiling, but a little more sadly than before. "Everyone compares themselves to others, and find themselves wanting. It is an irony, but more often than not the person whom you most admire probably looks upon you the same way, and upon themselves."  
  
"How.... I wasn't"  
  
"Yes, you were." Rakka brushed a hand against Ketsu's face. "I do. There was a time when I thought I was worthless. Perhaps I was, in a fashion." She shook her head. "Self delusion. I wanted to believe I was a failure, and so I started to become one." She then reached over Ketsu's shoulder and brushed a hand against the feathers of her wings. "I wouldn't want to see these beautiful grey wings turn a shade darker than they are, now."  
  
Ketsu lowered her gaze, unable to withstand the look Rakka was giving her. "Surely, the measure of my worth is up to me?" A deep glumness seemed to overtake her. A resistance, perhaps, to what Rakka was saying. "I really don't like myself. You'll have to try harder than that to make me believe otherwise."  
  
Rakka withdrew her hands, leaning back from Ketsu. "So, you don't believe I am genuine in liking you?"  
  
"I'm not saying that."  
  
"But that is precisely what you are saying, is it not?"  
  
The question frustrated Ketsu. It felt like Rakka was reading every word that was coming from her mouth, every thought that was going through her mind. She felt uncomfortably open. "I.... Whether you like me, or not.... Like my own measure of myself, is up to you. That doesn't mean you're wrong. Just.... perhaps.... mistaken." After a moment of silence, Ketsu growled and beat herself over her head. "Oooohhh.... I don't know." She stood, first looking at Rakka, then at her surrounds. "All of this. What is this place? Where am I? I feel tired and confused. I don't know how I got here, and I feel as if I've been lead on ever since.... I dunno, since I was lying with my head in your lap. I can't even remember how long ago that was."  
  
"Ketsu...." Rakka's voice was stern, reclaiming Ketsu's attention. She then softened her tone. "Nobody understands where they come from, so nobody knows how they came to be. Is it not enough to simply accept what is happening? Ride it out to the destination that has been set for you?"  
  
"I don't know. What is the point? I mean, why bother with a destination?" Ketsu sighed. "I really hate talking about myself. But its all I ever seem to do."  
  
"What else is there to talk about, other than your response to all that happens around you?" Rakka smiled and stood, brushing down the back of her dress. "Now that we have beds arranged inside, would you like to investigate your new world? I'm sure you'll find something of interest, there."  
  
"My new world?" Ketsu shook her head. "I've seen enough of it for one day."  
  
"Are you sure? You might find more people to add to your circle of friends."  
  
"You're enough." Ketsu turned and started to walk back into the hall, but Rakka stayed where she was. Sensing this, Ketsu paused and looked back at her. "What?" Rakka held her hands in front of her and continued smiling. "Ah. So YOU want to explore, is that it?"  
  
"No. You are the one who wants to explore. I'm merely going to follow you."  
  
"But...." Ketsu shook her head. "I'm not going anywhere. I want to stay here. For the time being."  
  
"That's not what you really want to do." Rakka persisted. Her smile had now vanished, replaced by a look of disappointment. Ketsu couldn't stand that look. She didn't want to disappoint Rakka. Not her.  
  
"What I really want to do is...." Ketsu looked away for a moment. "I don't know what I want to do." She reached out a hand to Rakka. "Please help me. I want.... I don't know...."  
  
Rakka lifted up a hand and touched Ketsu's.  
  
She was lying on her side, her knees close to being tucked underneath her chin. Her arms were wrapped around her legs, holding them there, with a strength she didn't know she had. She was lying in a bed. A large bed, in the common room, or the guest room. She'd heard it described as both. All this from the sense of touch. The last she could remember, she had been lying on the bed, and something happened. Something painful. And then there was something else.... Visions she couldn't quite remember.  
  
What she wanted, most of all, was to see Rakka when she opened her eyes. Rakka had to be there. If Rakka wasn't there.... A deep chasm opened up within her. She was too frightened to open her eyes. Too frightened. Too....  
  
No. You are the one who wants to explore. I'm merely going to follow you.  
  
Ketsu's eyes snapped open. Rakka was sitting, half asleep, in a chair nearby. The doors to the balcony were open, letting in a warm breeze. It was still day, though the light was fading. Ketsu turned her head and looked around the room. Rakka was the only person there. Just herself and Rakka. She smiled and watched Rakka sleep. The chasm within seemed to close. She was happy.  
  
Rakka head nodded forward and she started awake. Looking around, blearily, she noticed that Ketsu was awake. "Ah." She stood, a little too fast, and almost staggered on her feet. Ketsu chuckled.  
  
"You'll do yourself a mischief if you aren't careful." Ketsu was surprised at how dry and raspy her voice sounded. She put a hand to her throat and felt it. Rakka knelt down beside the bed.  
  
"How are you feeling now?"  
  
"I think I need water. My throat is dry. Nnnnn...." Ketsu winced as she felt a spasm of pain in her back, combined with a wooshing noise as something scraped along the bed behind her. "Ooohhh.... What...?"  
  
"Just your wings." Ketsu half-turned and gestured to her own. "You now have a pair, all to yourself. They're a popular item around here."  
  
"Can I...." Another spasm of pain, followed by a whooshing noise.  
  
"Careful. Don't try and use the muscles in your back and arms too much. The skin of your back is still sore and tender. Will be so for a couple of days. The muscles that control the wings aren't quite fully developed, yet, and won't be until you start using them more often. Until then, they have a tendency to respond to the other muscles around them."  
  
"Can I see them? I mean, can I see what they look like?"  
  
Rakka thought it over. "Well, okay. If you really want to." She got up and went to the table, where a small hand mirror was sitting. She scooped it up and returned, kneeling once more before holding it up for Ketsu to see. "There. Are they visible?"  
  
"A bit higher." Ketsu squinted into the mirror as Rakka lifted it slightly. Her eyes opened wide when she saw them.  
  
"Beautiful wings, just like mine. Neither white nor black, but a beautiful grey, like they were coloured by charcoal. You won't find anything else like them here."  
  
Ketsu was hypnotised by them. Slowly, she reached out with a hand, and Rakka allowed her to take the mirror. She moved the mirror around several angles, so she could see them more properly. And they were just as Rakka had said. "How...."  
  
"They just popped out of your back. It happens to all Haibane soon after they arrive here, in Glie." Rakka chuckled. "I think I told you all this before.... It has been a hectic couple of days, though...."  
  
Ketsu lowered the mirror and looked up at Rakka's halo. "What about that, then?"  
  
Rakka reached up to her halo. "This? Oh, you'll have one soon enough. Its different than the wings, though. It doesn't grow out of your head."  
  
"Be a bit of a mess if it did." Ketsu chuckled. "Ahhh.... If you think its been a hectic couple of days for you.... I can't even remember most of what has happened over that time."  
  
"You've been asleep for most of it." Rakka took the mirror from Ketsu and placed it back on the table. "I think I'll get that water for your throat. I don't think I can stand hearing you use sandpaper for vocal chords much longer."  
  
Rakka disappeared into the kitchen as Ketsu resisted the urge to stretch and yawn. The door to the common room opened, and Hikari and Kana entered, Hikari holding what looked like a small warming pan, with a donut shaped hoop on the end in place of the pan. "Ah, she's awake." Hikari smiled at Ketsu. "Well, this should make things easier."  
  
Rakka exited the kitchen with a glass of water. "You made good time."  
  
"Better than I thought it'd be. Ran into Kana, here, on the way back."  
  
Kana folded her arms behind her head. "Guess who piggybacked the last mile and a bit. I swear, if a whole fleet of secondhand bikes appear on the scene, I'm in for them.... Less work for me."  
  
Hikari chuckled as Kana sat down on the end of the bed, looking at Ketsu. "How are you feeling now? Any side-effects, and all?"  
  
Ketsu's eyes moved from Kana to Hikari and back. "I...."  
  
"For one thing...." Rakka butted in. "She needs something to drink. She certainly isn't going to be saying much until then."  
  
Rakka sat on the edge of the bed and, with one arms, gently helped Ketsu up into a seated position, before easing the glass of water to Ketsu's lips.  
  
She drank deeply and quickly, downing the whole glass in one. Rakka took the empty glass away and smiled at her. "I suppose you'll be wanting something to eat, soon. You haven't exactly been overfed since you arrived."  
  
Ketsu got her breath back and blushed. "It's.... okay.... I...." At which point, her stomach decided to grumble. They stared at her for several second before they laughed, good-naturedly. She put a hand to her stomach in embarassment. "I.... guess I do need something."  
  
"What have we got ready to go?" Kana nodded at Rakka.  
  
"Curry." Rakka stuck a tongue out at Kana. Vegetable curry." Kana grumbled at this. "Don't complain. You never make dinner, so you'll have to eat what is put in front of you." Rakka chided in response.  
  
"Ah, I'm such a hopeless case." Kana held up her hands, mockingly, then turned back to Ketsu. "What do you say to vegetable curry?"  
  
"Ummm.... Its better to have food than to have none?" Ketsu looked from Kana to Rakka, sheepishly, as Kana laughed out loud.  
  
"See what she thinks of your cooking, Rakka? She's barely eaten any, and she already sounds scared." Kana stood and gave Ketsu the thumbs-up. "Always use the best survival techniques around here."  
  
"Kana...." Hikari whapped Kana over the shoulder in admonishment as Rakka shrugged and took the glass back into the kitchen. When she returned, Hikari held out the little ring on a handle that she'd been holding.  
  
"Shall we do this now, or wait for the others to get here?"  
  
"Might as well do it now. We'll be here all night if we wait for Hana and the twins to arrive." Kana crossed her arms before someone cleared their throat from the doorway. They turned to see Yu standing there with her arms crossed, Hana and Sa behind her. "Looks like the cavalry's finally arrived. And about time, too." Kana smirked.  
  
"Thankyou very much, Kana. It is nice to see you too." Yu huffed and stomped past Kana to the other side of the bed where she stood, facing away from Ketsu, her arms folded behind her head. Hana and Sa followed her in.  
  
"Excuse her. She's had a hard day doing nothing. Always wears her out." Sa snorted, much to Yu's annoyance.  
  
"What we have been doing today cannot be deemed as being 'nothing'." Yu looked down her nose at her sister.  
  
"And just what have you all been doing, today?" Hikari looked at the three younger feathers. "You were all certainly missing in action when things were going down."  
  
"Um...." Sa's eyes shifted around the room, giving off the distinct 'I'm guilty about doing something you don't know about' look. Hana decided to jump in, here.  
  
"We were packing the crates back into the storage room." Hana was sure they could see the sweat running down her forehead.  
  
"Yeah.... Um..... We, like, cleaned out the storeroom, and such, and decided to put everything back as it was just getting in the way, outside." Sa followed up.  
  
"More like you scarfed everything in the crates for yourselves." Hikari growled.  
  
"It's true." Hana looked at Hikari and Kana. "You believe ME, even if you don't believe them."  
  
Hikari, Kana and Rakka almost shrugged in unison. "Well, if it's done, it's done." Rakka gestured to Hikari. "Well, we're all here now. So...."  
  
Hikari shrugged and pulled a small pair of tongs from the pocket of her skirt, almost small enough to be a large set of tweezers. With that, she popped the lid of the donut-ring. Within, still sizzling as if it had been freshly cooked, was a halo. Hikari picked the halo from the ring with the tongs and held it up for all to see.  
  
"With this halo...." She turned to Ketsu. "....We recognise you as a new Haibane of Old Home." And with that, she stepped up to the bedside and placed the halo above Ketsu's head.  
  
Ketsu could feel the heat of the halo in her scalp, and the strange sensation of something weighty pushing her down. Hikari released the halo with the tongs, and it floated above Ketsu's head, looking as if it was teetering on the edge of falling off. Ketsu reached up to touch it....  
  
"Don't.... It's still quite hot." Rakka cautioned her. Ketsu's hand dropped as she could feel the halo start to turn. The feeling seemed to come from within, as if what was driving the halo was a part of her.  
  
"Looks like this one is going to stay on." Kana crossed her arms and nodded. "About time, too. The last few have had to have their halos tied on before they stuck." She slyly looked from Rakka to the twins.  
  
"Not all of us are born perfect, Kana." Hikari flipped the lid back onto the halo mould and placed it on the table. "Shall we make dinner, Rakka? Someone has to do some work around here."  
  
"Oooh. Harsh." Kana chuckled.  
  
"I'll help." Sa piped in, before Rakka placed a finger on her forehead.  
  
"You'll be more help eating than preparing." She turned to Hana. "You, however, are a different story."  
  
As Hikari, Rakka and Hana entered the kitchen to make dinner, Kana patted Sa on the back. "I think we hard-working types would be better off cleaning ourselves up before dinner." She sniffed. "Besides, you smell awful."  
  
"I do not." Sa whined before Kana grabbed her by the earlobe.  
  
"Believe me, you do. In this weather, I'm not surprised. Sticky as a sauna, today, it was." Kana sighed. "Not pleasant for many reasons." She looked over at Yu, who was still standing next to the bed, ignoring everyone. "What about you? Feel like taking a bath for once in your life?"  
  
"I've cleaned myself up, thankyou very much. My sister and I don't share every little detail in our personal hygeine."  
  
"Suit yourself." Kana shrugged before dragging Sa out of the room. After watching them go, Ketsu looked up at her halo, watching it slowly spin on the spot.  
  
"What...." She asked softly to herself. "....Keeps it up there?"  
  
"Does it matter?" Yu's petulant reply reminded Ketsu of her presence. The girl had not turned to face her. Ketsu watched as Yu slowly stepped away from the bedside, obviously in deep thought.  
  
"It matters." Ketsu said, eventually. "Don't you want to know?"  
  
"I'm not interested in the mechanics of the world we live in." Yu leaned back, staring at the ceiling. Anything other than look at Ketsu. "Things happen in this world. Things that have no explanation. What holds our halos above our heads is just one of those things. I'm sure an in-depth explanation of it all would be fraught with all sorts of post-modern interpretive dangers. Or something like that."  
  
"Umm.... Yeah." Ketsu turned from Yu, feeling that the girl was dropping long words to start an argument. She yawned and lay down on her side, away from Yu. "I don't know if I'll be able to stay awake long enough to eat, after everything."  
  
"You'll eat if you want to." Yu's voice seemed softer, now, as she closed her eyes. "I don't really care all that much."  
  
"Yu! Are you picking on Ketsu again?" That was Rakka's voice. She heard Yu grumble, then silence.  
  
Ketsu opened her eyes. The view across the hall was blocked by Yu, kneeling next to the bed that she and Rakka had put together earlier. "What...."  
  
"Yes. What." Yu stood and walked into the middle of the hall as Ketsu sat up on the bed. She looked across at the other bed, where she could see Rakka sleeping, then back to Yu, who had started to spin on the spot.  
  
"What are you doing...."  
  
"Can't you tell? I'm making myself dizzy." And with that, Yu stopped spinning and staggered a couple of steps before regaining her sense of balance. "It is good to make yourself dizzy every so often. It gives you a whole new perspective on life." She looked down at the floor, taking in the colours painted there by the light through the coloured windows. "There is beauty, wherever you search for it. This beauty is yours. You should treasure it."  
  
"How.... How did you get in here?"  
  
"How?" Yu looked up at her. "I'm here because you let me. You wanted me to be here. I'm not sure why. We're both still quite hostile to each other. But if you look carefully, you might find something about me that you like."  
  
Yu fell to her knees and placed her fingers onto a patch of floor that was lit red. Ketsu watched her before standing from the bed. "I didn't invite you here." She grumbled. "You're the last person I would have invited here."  
  
"No...." Yu watched as the red light rolled over her hand as she turned it. "You wanted to know what I meant."  
  
"What you meant?"  
  
"About this world being fraught with post-modern interpretive dangers. You wanted to know what I meant when I said that. I actually told you, but you didn't listen, because you fell asleep. Typical, really. My sister does it all the time. Tell me.... Am I boring to you?" Yu looked up at Ketsu.  
  
"I think I could describe you in several ways. At least, what I've experienced of you. You really haven't given me a chance to get to know you."  
  
"Well, I'm here, now." Yu's hand, still in the red light, snapped closed around something. Yu got to her feet and walked over to Ketsu, holding out her hand. "Here."  
  
"What is it?" Ketsu eyed her, warily.  
  
"Something of importance."  
  
Despite her better judgement, Ketsu reached out an upturned palm. Yu opened her hand and dropped the red feather onto Ketsu's.  
  
She stared at the feather for what seemed like an eternity, before it, too, became a part of her inner being.  
  
"Two feathers, Ketsu." Yu smiled. "It isn't so bad outside, is it?"  
  
**END OF PART 7  
  
**----o

Responses:

beege: I loved Haibane Renmei for its slow, graceful, melancholy charm. You've done an admirable job of capturing that here while blending in new elements of suspense and change.

DDFA: I love Haibane for the same reasons. I'm trying to keep a handle on my tendency for overkill and pace this fic out as the original would have. But as I said in an earlier chapter, I like to meander with my fics. If this chapter doesn't prove that, I don't know what will. I also realise that have to actually DO SOMETHING that makes this story different from the original, otherwise it will end up being a regurgitation of everything that happened there.... The theme of change is one that will be used all through the story.

Unanimous: Don't let the lack of reviews discourage you. I do like your story and look forward to reading more of it. But, what color did her feathers emerge as? I know they're still covered in blood and grease, but still...

DDFA: Lack of reviews never worry me. I write for the fun of it. People reading it is always an added bonus. And I hope you've got your answer as to what colour Ketsu's wings are. I can't say more, as that would be giving something away. ;)

Albino Sheep: I love the story so far! You've done a very good job! Keep it up

DDFA: And pray my back trouble doesn't make it impossible for me to get out of bed for months on end, as it did earlier this year. Hard to get to the pc if you can't move. ;)

Thanks for reading all.  
  
DARK DAY FOR ANIME - THE RIGHT DISHONOURABLE MARK A PAGE

FEATHER 1.0: 19th-20th September 2004


	8. Part 8: Within Without Withunder

Disclaimer: Blah and blah don't belong to me etc...  
  
----o  
  
There was once a Haibane named Fune. His name had meant "little boat", because, in his dream, he had been pushed from one into deep, dark water. Pushed by someone he knew and thought he trusted.  
  
Fune had hatched from his cocoon near the painting of the Akabane, and thus caused many to worry about him, greatly. And there was much to worry about, for Fune proved to be a most difficult, unpredictable and angry young Haibane.  
  
He would latch onto people, as if they were his anchor in the world of Glie, and would invariably be left disappointed and feeling betrayed when they left him, or moved on. All of his extreme emotions were so wrapped up in trying to control those that he felt were there to support him that he never learnt how to take care of himself. Nor did he accept help from those who openly sought to give him what he wanted, if he considered said help to be hostile.  
  
And so, when the darkness broke through the walls of Glie and came for him, there was nobody to protect him.  
  
----o  
  
Ketsu stared up into the bright, burning sky.  
  
Spinning blades of a giant weather vane refelcted light into her eyes. She could imagine the light, flowing back from her into the world  
  
She reached up, as if to touch the vane, and wondered if she was dreaming.  
  
She heard Rakka calling out to her, and she turned.  
  
----o  
  
**An Haibane Renmei Fanfiction  
  
Red Feathers in Old Home  
  
by Dark Day For Anime  
  
Part 8  
  
Within - Without - Withunder**  
  
----o  
  
Summer in Glie would arrive with the same abruptness and intensity as the Winter that preceded it. The calm, gently warm days of spring would suddenly become intensely hot and humid, bringing with it wild electrical storms, interspersed with but a few breaks of more inviting, balmier weather (often in the immediate wake of the storms). Rakka looked up into the morning sky, already starting to fill with clouds, and dabbed the sweat from her forehead with a handkerchief. There was going to be rain before the end of the day, and long, heavy rain it would be, too.  
  
She turned back to the archway into the courtyard of Old Home, pocketing her handkerchief, as slow, tentative footsteps echoed through its recesses. Ketsu stopped and stared at the fields that surrounded Old Home warily, as much frightened by her first moments outside its protection as she was fascinated by the scenery. She then looked down at the clothes she was wearing, feeling a little uncomfortable. Rakka noticed.  
  
"They don't look too bad on you." She appraised Ketsu, who was wearing a short-sleeved, reddish brown shirt, black shorts and similarly black, rather large (for a girl Ketsu's size) shoes. The clothes had been cast-offs from Sa's wardrobe, the twin forgetting, in her over-eagerness to acquire clothes of her own soon after her arrival in Glie, exactly what her body measurements were likely to be. Almost everything she chose from the used clothes store was too big for her.  
  
She'd traded most of her poor acquisitions later on, but these had somehow hidden themselves at the back of the wardrobe, almost as if they knew they were going to be used. Sa was not happy with having to part with them. There was a half-constructed crystal set, sitting innocuously on a shelf at the back of the second-hand store, that she would have liked to get her hands on.  
  
"I don't know." Ketsu shrugged, moving the shirt about. "The fabric feels odd over my skin. Really abrasive. Unpleasant." She glanced back at her wings. "And the slots for the wings aren't lined up right. Its rubbing against them the wrong way, where the wings join my back."  
  
"You worry too much." Rakka patted her on the shoulder. "Your wings are a lot hardier than that." She flapped her wings a couple of times to underline the point.  
  
"I suppose so." Ketsu bit her lower lip. "Though I'll probably get friction burns from all the rubbing."  
  
"Its the weather." Rakka gestured at the sky. "The humidity makes you sweat, and your skin gets irritated, especially with unfamiliar clothes. Learn to ignore it, it isn't going to get any better."  
  
"I'm sure I'd feel this way in mid-winter. These clothes are all itchy and rough. I should put that dress you gave me back on...."  
  
As Ketsu looked as if she were going to turn back into Old Home, Rakka shook her head and took her by the arm, leading her away from the arch. "You are far too used to an easy lifestyle. The walk should do you some good."  
  
Ketsu stared back at the arch for the first ten or so steps, almost longingly, before registering what Rakka had said. "Easy lifestyle?" She puffed up her cheeks and pouted. "I'm only just getting my legs to work properly. I haven't had much chance to live anything but."  
  
"You've been walking around Old Home for days. I think they're working properly." Rakka smiled. "Though it would have been nice if the weather had been better in your first few days here. The weather was really nice when I arrived in Glie." Ketsu shrugged and held onto Rakka's arm, tightly.  
  
"I don't mind the hot weather. Mostly. It feels as if I've lived with this kind of weather for as long as I can remember. Here. And before. Maybe the weather is adjusting itself to suit me."  
  
"I certainly hope not. Don't think I could stand it like this all the time." Rakka chuckled.  
  
They continued on in silence for a while, following the path before turning off towards the temple. A short time later, Ketsu let go of Rakka's arm and paused, watching the windvanes atop the windy hill. Rakka, who had walked some short distance after Ketsu had released her, turned and studied her expression. There was something going on behind her eyes that was difficult to read: they didn't seem to be quite focused....  
  
"Are they that interesting?"  
  
"Hmm?" Ketsu snapped out of her musing and shrugged. "I dreamt about these things last night.... I think." She paused. "So hard to remember the details of my dreams. They're all a jumble. Sometimes I have trouble remembering which world is the dream and which is reality." She glanced at Rakka. "This is the real bit, isn't it?"  
  
Rakka raised an eyebrow before shrugging and pinching her cheek between thumb and forefinger. "It hurts. This must be real." She folded her arms behind her. "I certainly wouldn't want to dream about this kind of weather."  
  
Ketsu sighed and turned back to the vanes. "They were big." She pointed at the nearest of them. "Really big, and clean, like they'd just been built and painted. Not at all like these." Her hand moved back to the bridge of her nose, which she pinched as she closed her eyes, like trying to ward off a headache. "Or maybe there was just one. One big one. It seems important, somehow. I'm not sure why. Maybe I saw them from Old Home. But I wasn't really looking at our surroundings."  
  
"You can see quite a lot from the upper-storey windows of Old Home. Even if you weren't thinking about it, you could have glanced in this direction...."  
  
"No." Ketsu shook her head. "I wasn't looking. Not at that. I was looking at Old Home, itself." She paused. "Have you noticed the way it changes?"  
  
"Changes?" Rakka frowned.  
  
"All the rooms. They change around. Things move. Rooms that were derelict one moment seem not so the next. It is almost as if the place is alive, and adapting itself to the changes in its environment."  
  
Rakka thought long and hard about what to say next. Ketsu had a tendency to say these kind of things, out of the blue. "I've.... lived there for a number of years. Apart from watching things slowly fall apart, I can't say there have been any great changes."  
  
Ketsu seemed disappointed. "I thought, maybe, it was just my imagination. As I said, I've had trouble discerning the difference between the real world and my dreams. Maybe I'm mixing things up. Or maybe I'm just mixed up. I dunno...." After a few moments, she turned back to the vanes. "There is something about them." She said in an almost dreamy tone. "I almost feel as if I want to curl up underneath one and fall asleep...."  
  
"Well, you can do that later. We have things to do."  
  
Ketsu's face fell and she turned, brushing past Rakka in the direction of the temple before stopping. "Must we go? I really don't want to see them."  
  
"A summons from the Haibane Renmei cannot be ignored." Rakka shook her head. "There is nothing to be afraid of. The Haibane Renmei exist to help all Haibane who live in Glie...." She paused, thinking. "They might seem a little scary, at first, but they only want to help you. And to do that, they have to meet you."  
  
"I have you." Ketsu hadn't turned to look at Rakka, but she had gone rigid and stiff, her hands clenched white. Rakka knew, from experience over the last few days, that this was a sign of an incipient tantrum.  
  
"You have me." Rakka said, soothingly. "You have many people, Ketsu."  
  
"I have you." Ketsu was quivering now.  
  
"You have many people. People who helped me. Do you not trust those in whom I placed my own?" It did the trick. Ketsu's figure relaxed noticeably. Rakka stepped up alongside her once more and took her arm, gently guiding her further towards their destination.  
  
----o  
  
Sa leaned her chin against the wall of the balcony landing, looking glum as she stared at the empty courtyard. Hana watched her from the doorway to the common room, nervously.  
  
"Is she still sulking?" Hikari asked as she entered the common room, shrugging and stretching as she tried to make herself more comfortable in her blouse. As one of her better items of clothing, she tended to wear it sparingly, and thus found it somewhat strange and uncomfortable every time she put it on.  
  
Hana glanced back at her. "She had an argument with her sister this morning." The younger Haibane almost whispered. "Yu stormed off after she got dressed, to town, probably to the second hand goods shop. Sa's been like this ever since."  
  
"Been like what?" Sa grumbled from behind Hana. She had practically crept up behind the girl, so was unsurprised by how far the smaller girl leapt from the doorway. There were, practically, nanoseconds between Sa speaking and Hana hiding behind Hikari.  
  
Sa took a long breath and put her hands on her hips. "Honestly, we didn't argue at all. She's been all upset these past few days, and I called her an overemotional arse to calm her down. Then she starts crying and runs off. I really don't understand that girl."  
  
"Obviously." Hikari glowered. "Perhaps you might like to apologise to her when you next see her? Just a thought, but it might do a better job at calming her down."  
  
"Apologise?" Sa sniffed. "For what? She's the one who keeps acting like she's upset." Sa stormed past Hikari and grabbed Hana's arm. "Come on, you, we've got stuff to do."  
  
"Hey...." Hikari turned as she watched Sa and Hana disappear out of the room, the door slamming shut behind them. "Oooohhhh.... Kids!" She rubbed her face with her hands in frustration.  
  
----o  
  
Sa managed to drag Hana some distance before the smaller girl was able to work her way out of her grasp. "That hurt." Hana rubbed her arm as Sa paused, not turning around to look at her. "Why did you have to do that? What do we have to do?"  
  
"Check on the cocoon. I'd rather not go in there alone." Sa mumbled.  
  
"Oh...." Hana sighed. "You know, what she said.... what Hikari said.... was right."  
  
"I know that. But I'm not going to say that to her." Sa spun and grabbed Hana by the shoulders, taking her by surprise once more. "There is something going on between Yu and Ketsu. She might seem upset, but that's not what she's really feeling."  
  
"Eh?" Hana blinked in confusion.  
  
"Despite what Hikari says, I do know my sister, all too well. Sulking and whining are her pastimes. They're what she likes to do. So if she's especially sulking and whining around Ketsu, it means she really likes her."  
  
"Umm...." Hana frowned. "I'm sure it all makes a lot of sense to you...."  
  
Sa sighed with exasperation. "Look, you've spent much of your time trying to help Ketsu, to befriend her. You tried to show her around Old Home. You gave her meals and all sorts of things, and how has she responded?" Hana said nothing, so Sa nodded. "Exactly. Hasn't shown the slightest interest in you. But she seems to feel she has some kind of special attachment to my sister. They argue all the time, which means Yu really likes her, and she must really like Yu."  
  
"There is a flaw in that logic, somewhere."  
  
"My logic is never flawed." Sa let go of Hana and smiled. "You mark my words, if it goes on like this, they'll be lovers by this time next week."  
  
She had to help Hana off the floor. "I think...." Hana tried to stop herself from laughing. "You're misreading the situation."  
  
"Oh no I'm not. Not if I know my sister as well as I think I do."  
  
"I think we should be checking on the cocoon, what do you say?" Hana stifled a giggle before she moved on, leaving Sa standing in the middle of the corridor, considering all the things she could do to get between Ketsu and her sister....  
  
----o  
  
The secondhand goods store fronted onto a small cobblestone laneway, not far from the bakery where Hikari worked. The twins had discovered it whilst investigating the nooks and crannies of the township during their first few weeks in Glie.  
  
According to the customs of the Haibane, all new feathers were to find their place within the life and business of Glie, which meant finding them something productive to do with their days.  
  
Of course, it wasn't easy: they showed scant interest in doing any of the work the other Haibane of Old Home were doing. The mere suggestion of joining Nemu at the library was almost enough for Sa to break out in hives, and they'd both shown exactly what to expect from a visit to the bakery by almost setting the kitchen ablaze, one night, whilst trying to cook dinner. Nobody was willing to allow the pair close to anything that vaguely resembled a food-warming implement after that.  
  
Sa had shown some interest in Kana's work, at the clockmakers, and had even helped her out, for a while, with the renovation of the clocktower at Old Home. But Sa's attention span was too short: Kana never seemed all that interested in actually completing what she was doing.... She had remodelled and redesigned the mechanism for the clock at least twice before Sa wandered off with Yu to find something more their style.  
  
Yu had actually been mapping out the streets of the township. She had every bit the spatial memory of her sister, but used it in different ways. She'd memorise the lengths and widths of the streets by pacing them, then would go back to Old Home and draw them up on a piece of parchment she had found in the wardrobe of their room the day after they had chosen it.  
  
It was during these investigations, with the assistance of Sa, that they'd discovered the secondhand goods store in the small cobblestone laneway. It wasn't all that much to look at: a wide, slightly dusty front window, displaying a variety of household implements that had been, mostly, given to Inakuma, the owner of the store, in trade for other things. The laneway, itself, ran behind a line of townhouses and supply stores, which meant very few people used it, and with it being in shade for the majority of the day, there was a sense of the hidden about the store. All the same, they were sure they could hear a heavenly chorus the moment they laid eyes on the treasures within its depths. They had found their calling.  
  
Or so Yu had thought. Things had changed since then. Sa had changed.  
  
The owner of the store, Marie Inakuma, was a middle-aged woman who had inherited the business from her husband, after he had passed away from complications of an illness he had had since his childhood. His picture hung on the wall behind the counter of the store, giving it his continued, albeit mute, presence. At least, Marie liked to think so. She had said as much to Sa, when the unsubtle twin had bluntly asked her if the frame around the picture of 'the guy' was for sale. Much to Yu's relief, Marie proved to be a readily forgiving woman.  
  
Yu entered the store to the rattling jingle of the doorbell, which had spent a portion of its life as a cowbell, until Sa discovered it and made the conversion for the sake of Marie, who only ever seemed to register that anyone had entered the store on the odd occasion that she was awake. The rattling had roused her even now, and Yu sighed as the woman smiled a welcome, blinking blearily.  
  
"Honestly, what kind of welcome is that for the customers?" Yu put her hands on her hips. Marie stood from the battered old seat behind the counter and shrugged.  
  
"Good morning to you, Missy. Might I ask you what you have been doing for the past few days? I do seem to remember something about your working here."  
  
Yu huffed and stomped over to the counter. "There probably hasn't been a customer in all that time, so it wouldn't matter, anyway."  
  
"Au contrere.... There have been quite a number of customers."  
  
"Buying what? Everything is exactly where it was when I last left." Yu gestured to the items stacked on the dusty shelves before hopping up onto the counter, crossing her arms and flapping her wings. "But don't worry, I'm here to save the day."  
  
Marie smiled. "Whatever you say. Would you like some tea? I'll put the kettle on." She was about to turn before noticing what Yu was wearing. "My, all dressed up today, aren't we?"  
  
Yu looked down at the dark dress with the white frills around the collar and sleeves. "Mmmm.... Had this for a while. Just haven't had the time or opportunity to wear it."  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
"The funeral this afternoon." Yu sighed as Marie stared blankly at her. "Old Mister Fujita. You remember?"  
  
"Ah...." Marie nodded. "Mmmm.... Forgive me.... I didn't know him or his family all that well. Though my dear Goro probably did." She turned to her husband's picture. "He knew a lot of people around town. There were many at his service."  
  
Yu considered Marie for a moment, then shrugged. "We didn't know if we were going to be allowed to attend this afternoon." She leaned back and stared at the ceiling. "You won't believe the circles Rakka-oneesan and Hikari-oneesan have run around. Meanwhile, the rest of us have had to keep an eye on the newcomer...."  
  
"Hmmm...." Marie nodded before turning and opening the door to the small backroom. "How is she going, by the way?" She asked, pausing before entering and picking up the kettle from the counter by the door, testing how much water there was inside. Not much was the sloshing response.  
  
"Terrible. Awful. And that's just around me." Yu sniffed.  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Yeah." Yu shook her head. "I dunno which is worse.... The fact that I'm one of only two people she actually wants to interact with, or the fact that said interaction usually means arguing. With me. Only with me."  
  
"So she's a bit of a disruptive sort, is she? This...."  
  
"Ketsu."  
  
"Yes, this Ketsu. Sounds a bit like one or two Haibane I've heard about from the past." Marie moved across to the sink at the back of the room and started topping up the kettle.  
  
"Oh, it gets better. Half the stuff she wants to argue about, with me, she seems to have made up in her head." Yu turned and looked back at Marie, tapping the side of her head. "I'm not exactly up with the personalities of Haibane, in general, as I only know the ones I've met, but I have to be honest.... She's mental. There ain't no other word for it."  
  
"That's not a very nice thing to say." Marie stepped back towards the counter, replacing the refilled kettle where she had found it and plugged it in to the power. "All Haibane have eccentric personalities, in my limited experience, and of what I hear from others. Yours just happen to clash for the moment, that is all. She'll change in time, when she gets used to things."  
  
"You know, less than a couple of days after she had arrived here, she wanted to discuss with me stuff that I'd never said to her. Do you know what.... 'post-modern interprit.... interpola.... intrapretive.... dangers'.... actually means? I have enough trouble actually saying it." Yu made a spitting sound to underline this.  
  
"Is 'interpretive' the word you're looking for?"  
  
"Yeah, whatever. She wanted to have a row with me about it on her second night here. I had no idea what she was talking about. But in her own mind, I was the one who'd brought it up to begin with. And the only other person she'll talk to is Rakka. But does she argue with Rakka? Nooooooooooo.... Why me? What did I do to deserve this?" Yu slumped back on the counter and sighed. Marie pondered over the girl as the water in the kettle started to bubble. A rumble from outside the shop roused Marie from her reverie.  
  
"Is that what I think it is?"  
  
"Probably. The sky was starting to look pretty grim in the west as I was making my way here." She sat up and jumped off the counter, brushing the back of her dress. "It is looking pretty dark, now. I wonder if Rakka is alright. She said she had stuff to do with Ketsu this morning."  
  
"Hmm...." Marie turned her attention back to her tea-making as the kettle boiled. Yu absently wandered over to a shelf and touched the item that was sitting there.... A small kids turntable set, the needle arm sitting tenuously in its half-bent cradle. Yu ran her finger along the rubber ring of the turntable, itself.  
  
"You know, she wanted this."  
  
"What's that, dear?" Marie asked as she plonked two mugs in front of the steaming kettle.  
  
"This old turntable. Sa wanted this when we first started working here. But she never touched it. I always wondered why."  
  
"Everyones' interests are fluid. They move and change with time. Hers just moved on."  
  
"Like she moved on from here."  
  
Marie paused, then peered out from the backroom. "So, she's told you about that, has she?"  
  
Yu didn't reply. She didn't even turn to face her. But she didn't have to see Yu's face to know that she was crying. She took a breath and stepped out from behind the counter, putting her arms around the girl. Yu did not resist, pressing her face deep into Marie's front. After a minute, she lifted her face away and sniffed, wiping her eyes. Marie ran a hand across her hair.  
  
"Will it always be like this?" Yu asked, softly.  
  
"Like this?"  
  
"Will Sa always be the one who moves on first?"  
  
"I don't know." Marie said, soothingly. "Perhaps she's the one who is having the most trouble finding her place in the world."  
  
"I don't know." Yu swallowed. "Do you know anything, about Haibane twins?"  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Do they always reach their Day of Flight together, or do they leave separately?"  
  
"I don't know." Marie shook her head. "I've never met twin Haibane before. I'm not really the kind of person to ask. You and Sa, you're the first Haibane I've ever had the chance to know, personally."  
  
"What if she reaches that day before me?" Yu's eyes started to fill with tears again. "I don't want that to happen. I don't want to be left behind by her...."  
  
"You'll never be left behind." Marie turned to the picture of her husband. "When your time comes, you'll know, and understand."  
  
Yu swallowed. "I really think I could do with that cup of tea...."  
  
----o  
  
He stood within the gardens of the temple, alone and silent. Nothing had been done to him, nothing had been said to him. His actions had gone completely unpunished. And that, more than anything, frightened him.  
  
For what he had done was a grievous sin. The punishments handed out to those who had tried, in the past, had been severe. But he had been conscious and lucid for over a day, now, and could feel, what passed for life, returning to his body. If not for the bandaged wounds he had inflicted upon himself, there was little sign that anything had changed. Nobody had challenged him when he'd left his bed to come out into the gardens. It all felt very, very wrong.  
  
But for now, there was the glade at the edge of the gardens. The high, protective walls had provided some shade from the relentless sun, now disappearing behind the burgeoning anvilhead clouds that would flash within their dark cores, like angry spirits building themselves up to rain vengeance upon the world. The trickling of a small stream enveloped the glade with a coolness and tranquility in stark contrast to the approaching storm. Here, he had decided to pause and reflect on what he had done, and why....  
  
And the moment he had heard the gates to the temple open, he remembered why. There were Haibane entering the gardens, and one of them was HER....  
  
A rumble of thunder spurred him into action, moving quickly and silently through the trees, bushes, stones and monuments, towards the central corridor. When, at last, he saw them, he slowed and sidled his way behind one of the trees, watching as the Haibane were silently lead through by the Touga whose turn it had been to guard the gates.  
  
The Touga turned and placed the bells of communication on Rakka's wings and wrists, the girl accepting them readily. All within the temple knew the Haibane Rakka as well as any of them could. In their experience, few Haibane had spent as much time within the temple as she. She had even learned the basics of their sign language, though they wished for it not to become something she would need in later life.  
  
When the Touga moved to place the bells on the new feather's wings, however, she shrunk from him, hiding behind Rakka like a protective barrier. Rakka turned to her and whispered something, then took the bells from the Touga, placing them upon the new girl the way the Touga had done so on herself. She then nodded at the Touga, who turned and stepped back through the gates, closing them behind him.  
  
----o  
  
She stood upon the edge of a large pond and stared up at the giant, circling wheel. The huge, gleaming white windvane stood alone and incongruous within the forest, its blades rising above the high treetops as light was reflected down onto the still water below.  
  
She cast her eyes down to the pond and watched the gentle, rippling flashes of light, feeling a sense of ease she had not felt for some time. She had no idea where she was, but was sure the hall had to be nearby, and within it the red feathers she treasured. They had not followed her here, though they, perhaps, should have.  
  
She waded into the pond, allowing the water to rise up around her waist. The water was cool and relaxing: the world and the atmosphere had become altogether too uncomfortable. She felt the temptation to wade deeper, until it rose above her head, swallowing her up completely, when she heard a voice....  
  
"The girl does appear most apprehensive."  
  
She shrinked as much as she could behind Rakka at the approach of the Washi. Rakka looked away nervously as she felt Ketsu tense up, as if she were about to make a run for it. The Washi chuckled, shaking his head.  
  
"You would almost think she doesn't like me very much. Ah well, I suppose that is to be expected. It is the way of things." He paused, resting himself over the winged staff he always seemed to carry, looking quite tired. "Though what an old man like myself could do to you, to engender such fear, is beyond me. It is more than enough that I find the energy to get out of bed to greet you." He turned his eyes, momentarily, to the trees before gesturing to Rakka. "If Haibane Ketsu wishes to remain here, she can." He peered around Rakka's shoulder, at the one eye Ketsu was willing to watch him with. "Rakka can fill me in on how you are progressing. Is that alright with you?"  
  
Ketsu didn't respond, either way. Rakka sighed, shaking her head before leaning back one more and whispering into her ear. Ketsu nodded and, with a jingling of the bells on her wings and wrists, dashed behind the nearest rock, stopped and continued her intense appraisal of the Washi. He gestured to Rakka to follow and they moved away.  
  
Ketsu took in her surroundings, letting out a long breath when she felt assured that she was alone. Slowly, she slid down the rock, her legs seemingly exhausted from all the nervous energy she had expelled. She stared down at the moss on the ground and felt the world become hazy once more....  
  
She was standing on the edge of the pond. She thought she could hear the voice of Rakka, calling out to her. Rakka's voice seemed worried, concerned, for her safety.... But it didn't matter. She was where she wanted to be.  
  
Staring at the reflected glitter from the large vane above, she was about to wade out into the pond once more when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned.  
  
The cowled figure she had seen in the hall, when she had first discovered it, stood silently, holding her back from the edge. For a moment, she wanted to scream and run, but the figure held up his other hand, and in that hand was.... a red feather.  
  
She felt compelled to take it from him, and as she did so, the world came back into focus....  
  
She was sitting against the rock in the temple gardens, clutching something within her hands. The cowled figure was sitting, cross-legged, in front of her. She recognised the clothing as belonging to one of the Touga, covering up any sign of individual identity. The figure silently gestured to her enclosed hands, and she opened them to see what she was holding.  
  
It was a small, ornate blade, its handle carved and painted with the symbols of red feathers. It was like a stilletto in miniature, more decorative than practical. The tiny blade glimmered like the water atop the pond, and she looked up. Above them whired the vast blades of the vane, translucent like a ghost. She watched as the vane vanished into the shimmering haze of the pre-storm humidity.  
  
The figure watched her bleary gaze for several moments before taking her arm and standing, helping her to her feet. She allowed him to lead her away from the rock towards the protective enclosure of the glade....  
  
----o  
  
Another rumble of thunder caused Rakka to turn and look back at the rock where she had last seen Ketsu. That the girl was no longer there came as no surprise to her. She had seen the Washi's gaze, towards the figure that was hiding within the gardens. She turned back to the Washi, who had paused, waiting for her.  
  
"She will be safe." The Washi pointed at the gardens with his cane. "It was important that they meet. Better now than later, though the result, for her, would be no different." Rakka wanted to ask him what he meant, and he noticed. "As I said, she will be safe. That one has no desire other than to protect her. He knows, all too well, what it is like to go through the things she is experiencing."  
  
----o  
  
There was once a Haibane named Fune. His name had meant "little boat", because, in his dream, he had been pushed from one into deep, dark water. Pushed by someone he knew and thought he trusted.  
  
Fune had hatched from his cocoon near the painting of the Akabane, and thus caused many to worry about him, greatly. For the painting was a symbol of the way their previous lives had ended.  
  
In the act of murder.  
  
END OF PART 8  
  
----o  
  
This has been, by far, the most difficult chapter for me to write.... over a month since the last one.... I've chopped and changed so much in this one, even more than when chapter 5 turned into 5 and 6. Ah well, it is finished, now.... :)  
  
And now, a response:  
  
Savage Reprise2: Well I've just finished your fanfic after a moderately extended read, and I find myself quite impressed with the overall quality of the story.  
  
It is certainly well written, with a good balance of effective pacing and descriptiveness. I like the length you're writing at the moment.

DDFA: Thanks, though I sometimes feel I'm making the job difficult for myself, writing chapters to this length.... More to keep a round figure of how long I want the chapters to be than anything else....  
  
Savage Reprise2: The fanfic does retain a certain quality of the series, but, I feel has lost a little of the charm. That's to be expected, though, of a darker story, and of anything willing to deviate from the show towards originality.

DDFA: Indeed, it would be difficult to do anything but.... To write in the original style of the series, completely, would be racking over exactly the same material as it covered, so.

Savage Reprise2: The characterisation is great, both for the original characters, and for the ones adopted from the show. I enjoyed what you've so far done with Hana's character, and the twins are certainly engaging.

DDFA: I have fun writing for them. A lot, thereof. :)

Savage Reprise2: Ketsu, though, while being at the heart of the story, so far has earned little likeability.

DDFA: I certainly hope so, as I'm not trying to make her likeable. Difficult, mixed up, sad and somewhat scary, yes. Likeable, no. ;)

Savage Reprise2: The whole idea of the Akabane is quite interesting, I must say, and the more grim and graphic nature of the tale makes it slightly more gripping than other fanfic I've read for this series.

DDFA: Grim and graphic has never been something I've shirked from. It hasn't made me popular with certain individuals, but hey.... ;) Anyway, most people tend to forget what episodes 6-8 and 13 are like. Dark and grim they be, indeed.  
  
Savage Reprise2: There were a few occasions where I felt a scene was overdone, or where I just didn't like the idea behind it. Rakka's use of her thumb was one of those times. I didn't like that scene in the show, because, if I remember correctly, there were other objects that could certainly have been used to prevent Rakka from biting her tongue. I probably would have used the roll of bandage.

DDFA: I'm always trying to control my tendency to melodrama in my fics. Chapters 7 to 16 of "Usagi is Dead" shows what happens when I go completely manic. I'm trying my hardest to control that with this one. And it is damn hard, I tells ye....  
  
Savage Reprise2 I'm sure Rakka would have at least remembered to have the tongue-biting issue covered beforehand.  
  
But I love the story nonetheless, after all who has read a story that had no aspects that they did not like? I'm eagerly awaiting the next update!

DDFA: And I'm hoping that this chapter hasn't changed your mind. :)  
  
DARK DAY FOR ANIME - THE RIGHT DISHONOURABLE MARK A PAGE

FEATHER 1.0: 1st October - 1st November 2004


	9. Part 9: Rain Dreamcycle Fune

DARK DAY FOR ANIME - THE RIGHT DISHONOURABLE MARK A PAGE

darkdayforanime at hotmail dot com  
  
Disclaimer: Blah and blah don't belong to me etc...  
  
----o  
  
The world, itself, seemed to be bleeding. There was blood everwhere he looked, glowing dark and oozing stickily in the light of the full moon. On the ground, on the trees, on the rocks.... On himself.  
  
He lay on the ground, his breath rattling in his throat. Around his head, his halo lay in shattered fragments. On either side, his wings, grey feathers tainted with black, were torn to shreds, ripped from his back. In his right hand he held the tiny dagger which he had used. Used on the thing that he had feared the most. Others hadn't feared it, and they had been killed by it. What was left of them was what coated his surrounds. The darkness didn't have remains to scatter, but that was just as well. If any of it had remained, there would be no saving Glie.  
  
He tried to swallow, but found the taste of blood in his mouth, and his eyes opened wide in fear. The breach in the wall was starting to heal itself, and he could feel his time running short. He had no wings with which to face his Day of Flight. He was trapped, deep within the echoing recesses of limbo, and there was no way out.  
  
A face appeared above him, framed in the moonlight. Golden hair and scarlet eyes, halo and wings. The face smiled sadly at him, and a hand was offered. He wanted to take that hand, but there was no energy left in his limbs. The world blurred, shifted, spun and stopped....  
  
----o  
  
**An Haibane Renmei Fanfiction  
  
Red Feathers in Old Home  
  
by Dark Day For Anime  
  
Part 9  
  
Rain - Dreamcycle - Fune**  
  
----o  
  
"Do you notice anything different?" The Washi asked Rakka as they stepped underneath a large tree in the centre of the temple gardens. Rakka looked at him, quizzically, and the Washi gestured to the gardens. "Here, in this place. Does it seem different to you in any way?"  
  
Rakka followed his gesture, looking at their surrounds. She signalled 'no', with a soft jingling of bells, and the Washi nodded. "Hmmm.... We are often caught up in the moment, and don't notice what is going on around us. We maintain these gardens, trying to keep them alive, trying to keep them the same, but even so, they are quite different from the moment you arrived. Most Haibane fail to notice the changes because they spend but only a little time amongst us. I would wager that you have failed to notice the changes because of the opposite. But everything changes. Soon, this will be a very different place, one, I am certain, you will not recognise."  
  
The Washi lowered himself to the ground, leaning up against the tree, and gestured for Rakka to join him. After doing so, he held up a hand to her. "I will give you permission to speak. I wish to hear of Haibane Ketsu's progress."  
  
Rakka opened her mouth, but found it difficult to know what to say. "Well...." She paused. "I'm not really sure if you could call what she is going through as.... progress."  
  
The Washi seemed to sigh. "Does she frighten you?"  
  
"No...." Rakka screwed up her eyebrows, trying to find the words to say. "But I do find myself walking on glass around her, most of the time. She's so unpredictable.... Her emotions seem to change from moment to moment, and I, likewise, am not sure.... of what she is going to say next, or how she'll react to what I, or anyone else, may say." Rakka looked down at the ground. "I must be honest.... As much as I want to help her, it is trying my patience."  
  
"Hmmm...." The Washi pondered. Rakka glanced back up at him. Behind his mask, it was hard for her to tell just what he was thinking. "Dreams are powerful things, you know." He said, finally. "They can affect you in ways that are highly personal."  
  
"Dreams...." Rakka murmured. "She keeps talking about her dreams."  
  
"I would expect so. It is symptomatic of all that she is going through. All that can be done is to try to ground her into this reality.... Otherwise...." He trailed off again.  
  
"Ano...."  
  
"Hmmm?"  
  
"You knew about her problems.... with the dreams. Is this because of your experience, with Fune?"  
  
The Washi considered her, silently, before chuckling, rather drily in Rakka's view. "Yes, you could say I have had some experience with the dreams. Change may be inevitable, but so are the cycles of that change. I just hope, for Ketsu's sake, that she does not find a place in that cycle that she will live to regret."  
  
As thunder from the approaching storm rolled throughout the temple, the Washi peered over a stone rotunda, near the entrance to the Wall. "It might be best if we both make our move, soon, lest we get too comfortable here and find ourselves getting drenched."  
  
----o  
  
Thunder brought Ketsu around, where she found herself sitting within the glade. The gurgling of the nearby brook underscoring the cool peacefulness of the place. It seemed unafraid of the storm. For a few moments, she thought she was back at the side of the pond, overshadowed by the giant vane, such was its dreamlike quality.  
  
She didn't know how she came to be here, but it didn't seem to matter. There wasn't anything around her that could possibly harm her. Not even the cowled figure of the Touga, standing beside the brook, staring into its waters, seemed threatening. Not now, not anymore.  
  
Within the cocoon.... He floated forward, to reach out and touch the inner shell. It felt warm and fleshy.... He tore at it, pulling away the protection. He felt that he had to escape. Escape the darkness that was chasing him. If he didn't get away....  
  
Ketsu opened her eyes. She was sitting by the doorway to the hall. The Touga was sitting at the other end of the hall, kneeling down as if in prayer. Only it wasn't a Touga. It was a young boy, perhaps no more than a year older than herself. He turned and looked at her. He had a round, almost pudgy face underneath short-cropped light brown hair, yet his figure was quite thin. He had a wide mouth and warm, hazel eyes. He was smiling, reaching out a hand to her. She stood and stepped along the length of the hall, reaching out for that hand....  
  
Lying in a bed. He didn't know where he was. There were people around him that he didn't know, though he was sure he should have. They were talking about him, not to him. What was wrong? Didn't they know he was listening? He wanted to move from the bed, but his body felt weak and sore. One or two of the figures leaned down and held him, trying to calm him. He didn't want to feel like this.... He was too weak.... What if the darkness were to come for him now. It would take him, and....  
  
Ketsu stood outside the hall, staring into the fountain. The figure, from whose wrists the water flowed, had reshaped and reformed. It looked even more like her, now, than it had when she'd last seen it. Even the hair was the right length and shape. She turned away from the fountain and started to walk towards a stand of trees around the back of the hall.  
  
People wanted to help him. Or so they would say. But their help seemed to consist of criticism, of judgement, of harsh treatment. He began to wonder if the people of this town worked for the darkness.... If, in fact, this town was a trap of the darkness. He could feel himself drowning, deep within the laws of this cage.  
  
Ketsu waded deep into the pond, and deeper still. She would not be satisfied until her head was underwater, until she was drowned within its depths. There, she would be truly safe, forever, in a place where nobody would find her. She thought she could hear Rakka, calling out to her, but she took no heed. She was where she wanted to be.  
  
He ran through the rain, across the moor to the western wood. The darkness was chasing him, hunting him down like an animal. He could hear others, calling out his name. A name he had almost forgotten.... And soon others would also forget. Once in the western wood, there would be no escape. The darkness had him....  
  
Underneath the water, she could see a light, and she swam towards it. She opened her eyes and found herself sitting within the glade. The rumble of thunder was underscored by the gurgling of the brook. For a few moments, she wondered where she was, but it didn't seem to matter. She felt safe in the glade. Not even the figure of the Touga, standing beside the brook, looking away, was frightening to her. Not anymore. She closed her eyes....  
  
He gestured to her, beckoning her through the woods. The young man who was also the Touga lead her out through the ruins that lay beside the wall and continued on. And there, on the other side, was the gap. The vast gap in the collapsed wall. Its defences breached, the stonework and masonry lay in scattered piles over the gap, its deep inner sanctums, exposed to the light, lay bare and profaned. And on the other side, she could see....  
  
Rakka stood before the pond, holding up her hands, trying to ward her off. She felt annoyed by this, yet found it impossible to be angry with her. Rakka approached and put her arms around her. She felt as if she were going to cry. But she couldn't, because she was dead inside. Her soul was....  
  
His soul was dead inside. He stared at the collapsed wall within the western woods, its defences breached, and he knew the darkness had come for them all. He reached down and grabbed one of the stones, feeling what residual power it had left start to drain him of that which remained inside. And he crushed the stone into powder, turning back to the forest. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small blade, like a tiny stilletto, with a handle engraved and painted with the markings of red feathers. And he ran back into the forest, crying out in anger for all his life was worth.... Like a demon with his blackening wings.  
  
She looked at the tiny blade the Touga had given her, the handle engraved and painted with the markings of red feathers. She now had three feathers in her grasp, one of which she had not expected. She looked up at the figure of the Touga. He had turned and was watching her. She didn't know what to say to him, or if she would be able to say anything at all. He held up his hands and signed some kind of gestured language to her....  
  
"The dreams you have, both waking and asleep, are more than mere dreams. No Haibane lives an existence that is truly material. They are the sum of their own dreams and feelings. Ethereal yet real. The dreams are as much your existence as they are a warning. You cannot ignore them. At least, we who have been touched by the darkness cannot ignore them. They will haunt our every moment, and make it difficult for us to find our way. But there is something.... someone.... who can help us. Guide us through these moments.  
  
Three feathers, Ketsu. And there are more waiting for you. Will you be willing to accept them?"  
  
She opened her eyes and found herself within the cocoon. For a few moments, she panicked, wondering if everything she had experienced up to now had been a dream. She heard voices nearby. Soft but insistent. On the outside of the cocoon.  
  
She felt herself float through the shell and into the storeroom. Not as dark as it had been, thanks to the removal of the boards that had covered the window, it still felt quite dark and desolate. The cocoon was surrounded by a high barricade of boxes, deliberately placed to encircle and hide the cocoon from anyone who dared to look.  
  
From a small gap off to one side emerged the figure of a smallish girl with short blond hair, glowing underneath the ever-present halo of a Haibane, wearing a dress that looked obviously uncomfortable on her. She felt she should recognise this girl, but her memory just didn't want to come to the party.  
  
The Haibane girl wiped her forehead and flapped the dust away from her wings as a second Haibane girl, smaller than the first, emerged from the gap. "Now my dress is all dusty. I'll have to find something else to wear this afternoon."  
  
"Stop whining." The older of the two turned to her. "If something isn't worth getting dirty in, it isn't worth wearing. And as far as I'm concerned, this dress needs to get dirty. It has a bad attitude."  
  
"You sound as if you think the dress is alive."  
  
"Well, Yu picked it up for me, so it comes with some of her attitude."  
  
"Honestly, that's all you talk about." The smaller girl looked up at the cocoon. "It looks.... different."  
  
"What do you mean?" The older girl peered over at the cocoon. "Well, yeah, it is kinda fresher-lookin' than when I last saw it. Have you been cleaning it, or something?"  
  
"No. I wouldn't come in here unless one of you were with me." The younger girl stepped up to the cocoon and put her hand against it. Ketsu felt as if the girl was touching her very soul. The touch was gentle, and protective. "It is humming away, just like always. As long as it does that, Ketsu-oneesan will be okay, right?"  
  
"How would I know? I'm only a passenger on this shipwreck." The older girl stepped up alongside the younger one and brushed a hand along the cocoon's side. It felt encouraging, almost combative. "The skin of the thing is definitely softer. I don't know whether this is a good sign or not."  
  
"I would hope it is a good sign." Ketsu whispered. Both girls snatched their hands away, surprised.  
  
"Wha...." The older girl's jaw had almost hit the floor. "What the hell was...."  
  
"That was her voice." The younger girl put her hand back on the shell. "Ketsu-oneesan's voice." The younger girl seemed to be excited. What was her name?  
  
Hana.  
  
Hana is your name?  
  
You don't know?  
  
I'm sorry, it is hard for me to remember names.  
  
You don't remember me?  
  
Ketsu thought hard. There was a vision, of a young girl, guiding her through the halls of Old Home, introducing her to the house mother, and to some of the young feathers who were staying there. Many of them seemed frightened of her. She felt ashamed that she could frighten people so easily.  
  
The girl was helping to feed her, when she was too weak to do so herself. The girl was choosing clothes for her, washing her.... The girl....  
  
Ketsu-oneesama....  
  
"What are you doing?" The older girl shook Hana's shoulder.  
  
"I'm talking to her through the cocoon." Hana paused. "I think. I think it is her." She paused again. "I know it is her...."  
  
"You're doing what?" Sa stared at Hana as if she were crazy, but Hana responded by taking her hand and placing it against the cocoon.  
  
"Here, see if you can, too...."  
  
"Wait a minute...."  
  
Ketsu-oneesama....  
  
Ketsu could hear Hana's voice in her mind as she, once more, touched the cocoon. She could FEEL her mind, and that of the other girl.... Sa? Her name was Sa. She was one of a pair of twins. The other was....  
  
Ketsu opened her hand and looked down on the feather the girl had given her.  
  
"Two feathers, Ketsu." Yu smiled. "It isn't so bad outside, is it?"  
  
It isn't so bad....  
  
Why....  
  
Hiding the cocoon. To protect you.  
  
Protect?  
  
The cocoon reformed, after you left it.  
  
Reformed?  
  
Don't understand why.... It just did. If anyone finds out....  
  
Ketsu closed her eyes. There were two objects fluttering behind her eyelids. She opened them again.  
  
Are you really Ketsu?  
  
I am. As far as I can remember.  
  
Where are you now?  
  
Ketsu looked up. She was in the glade within the temple walls. The Touga was now sitting in front of her, looking at the ground at their feet. She heard a rumble of thunder and looked up into the sky. The dark clouds were now, practically, overhead.  
  
She could hear rain. But it hadn't reached her yet. That thought registered elsewhere.  
  
It is starting to rain here.  
  
Is that the inside of the temple?  
  
This is going to put a dampener on the day.  
  
Ketsu smiled and closed her eyes. She could see the objects fluttering once more, and she reached out to grab them. Both red feathers melted into her palms.  
  
What.... was that?  
  
Ketsu-oneesan?  
  
Another roll of thunder, and the connection seemed to come to an end.  
  
----o  
  
The rain rattled heavily over Old Home as Sa and Hana stood back from the cocoon, which had returned to its dormant humming. They both stared at each other for a moment, then opened their mouths in unison to say something to each other. Then closed them. Then opened them again. Then closed them again.  
  
Eventually, Sa put a hand over Hana's mouth. "You know if all of our cocoons had done this, it would make communication so much easier. And everyone thought I was mad when I suggested putting a phone line between Old Home and the township."  
  
Hana removed Sa's hand. "You know, you have an ability to make the amazing seem mundane." She turned and stared at the cocoon. "I'm not sure I understand what just happened. But it felt different.... The way she responded to us, it...."  
  
"Shhh...." Sa turned and listened, carefully. "I think I hear Hikari calling us."  
  
"Then we better get out of here as quickly as possible."  
  
They both moved back towards the gap in the boxes as the rain hammered down even more heavily.  
  
----o  
  
The first few drops of rain started to fall in the glade, and Ketsu looked up at the sky, feeling them splash against her face. There was a tap on her arm and she looked back at the Touga, who was leaning forward with two umbrellas. She took the one he offered, and they opened them just in time for the rain to drown out the sound of the brook.  
  
----o  
  
Rakka helped the Washi up the steps of the small stone rotunda, and they both watched as the rain turned the temple gardens into ghosts, vision obscured to little more than ten feet in every direction. The world seemed to have closed in on them. Rakka turned to the Washi, her eyes questioning.  
  
"They will be alright. Rain can be messy, uncomfortable and inconvenient, but it rarely harms." He chuckled. "Though you can catch your death of a cold if you stand out in it for long enough."  
  
----o  
  
Yu pressed her face against the window of the shop, staring forlornly at the rain. "I think the chance of customers, today, has just hit zero."  
  
"What makes you think that?" Marie was sitting back in her chair, her eyes closed, listening to the rain. The constant noise was soporific, almost inviting sleep.  
  
"Who would want to be out in this?" Yu turned back to the dark interior of the store and shook her head. "It is like a mausoleum in here." She moved back to the counter and reached around the side, flicking a switch. Two small lights flickered into existence, doing just slightly more than nothing to cast away the gloom. They then flickered out a couple of times when lightning flashed over the township, before coming back to life. Yu crossed her arms, not looking all that satisfied. "You really must do something about the decor in this place. This is supposed to be a shop, not a museum."  
  
"It does the job." Marie sat up. "And we have a customer."  
  
"What?" Yu turned to the opening door. "No way!"  
  
With the clanging ring of the doorbell, an elderly man stood in the doorway, attempting to close his umbrella and shake it dry in the laneway. "Honestly...." He huffed as he placed the still-damp brolly into the doorside umbrella stand. "You'd think the weather had something against me." He smiled as Yu bowed.  
  
"I.... irasshai mase."  
  
"Ah, one of the Haibane twins." The elderly man stepped up to Yu as straightened and patted her on the head. "Haven't seen you around town for a few days."  
  
"Eh?" Yu blinked.  
  
"Popped in here a couple of days ago, and Marie, here, said you'd both gone missing."  
  
"See." Marie chuckled. "I told you we had customers while you were away."  
  
"Customer. Singular." Yu puffed up her cheeks and pouted.  
  
"Semantics." Marie nodded at the elderly man. "What will it be today, Mister Mallory? Earl Grey or Oolong?"  
  
"Oolong this time, I think." And with a flourish, he pulled a chair from behind one of the shelf units and sat down. "Make it strong. It is going to be a while before this weather calms down."  
  
"Oolong it is, then." Marie stood from her chair and disappeared into the backroom.  
  
"You know...." Yu stared after her. "You really should give thought into turning this place into a teahouse. You seem to serve more tea here than anything else."  
  
"Customer service, my dear, customer service." Came Marie's cheerful reply, just as the shop door opened again. Yu turned to watch a young woman stepped through the doorway, shrugging off her wet raincoat.  
  
"Dear oh dear.... And I thought I was going to make it back in time." The young woman muttered as the door closed behind her. She hung her coat on a hook on the back of the door and placed a small bag of shopping next to the umbrella stand. "Hmmm.... Do I hear the kettle boiling?"  
  
"Earl Grey or Oolong?" Came Marie's reply.  
  
"Earl Grey, I think." The woman stepped up to Yu and smiled. "How are we today? Haven't seen you in a few days."  
  
"Don't tell me.... You popped in whilst I was away?"  
  
"Mmm.... A couple of days ago. Hello there, Mister Mallory."  
  
"Morning to you, Miss Kurtz." Mallory chuckled.  
  
"Honestly, there wasn't a single customer in this place the week before.... I'm beginning to think you were all trying to avoid me, or something." Yu cringed as Kurtz tickled her halo, giggling.  
  
"Now why would we do that? What with a cute little Haibane like you minding the store?" And with that, Kurtz turned and considered one of the shelves, as Yu leant over the counter, grumpily.  
  
"I am not 'cute'." She muttered, staring into the empty depths of her used mug. She picked it up and held it out towards the door to the backroom. "Another cup, on the double."  
  
"Aye aye, sir." Said Marie as she reached out and plucked it from Yu's hand.  
  
The door opened again. Yu buried her face in her hands. "Honestly.... I don't mind customers, but I hate the thought of a rain-based sales pattern."  
  
"Good thing I'm not here to buy anything, then, isn't it?" Came the gruff reply from Kana as she allowed the door to swing shut behind her, pulling back the hood from her raincoat. "Unless taking you away from here counts as trade."  
  
"One of your friends?" Marie peered out from the backroom.  
  
"Its the halo and the wings that give it away, isn't it?" Yu turned to Kana sarcastically. "What has Sa done this time? Turn the clock at Old Home into a timebomb?"  
  
"No, actually. I was told to make sure you make it to the service this afternoon. Apparently I'm the only one brave enough to face the weather for this task." Kana shrugged off her coat and placed it on the hook next to Kurtz's.  
  
"I'm not that unreliable, am I?"  
  
"Don't ask me, dear." Marie chuckled. "You're the one who spent close to a week away from work."  
  
It was fortunate that they didn't hear what Yu mumbled in her next sentence.  
  
----o  
  
It felt like it was close to an hour before the rain started to ease, and trapped within the bowl of the temple, Rakka had visions of having to swim her way out.  
  
But the hot and, ostensibly, dry weather that had preceded the rains had left the soil parched, and it lapped it all up, like a sponge. When she and the Washi had stepped back onto the grassy earth from the rotunda steps, there was no squelching underfoot. She was glad of that.... She hated walking in wet shoes.  
  
"The rain ends, for now, having washed away the grime of the past." He pointed at the sky. A small strip of blue appearing between the clouds. "It shan't last long. I would hurry away before it starts again." Rakka nodded, and the Washi paused, placing a hand on her arm. "You have something you want to say. I haven't yet told you to stop speaking."  
  
"I.... It seemed to occur to me.... Whenever we speak, lately, that our words seem to be idle." Rakka pondered. "Like chatter. It seems strange."  
  
"To think that I may simply want to talk with someone? I should hope not. There is little enough conversation in this place for an old man like me." The Washi chuckled. "No, Haibane Rakka, let it be known that every word said, by all, is simply idle chatter." The Washi turned as two figures emerged from the gardens. Ketsu and the Touga, both still holding their umbrellas, their clothes slightly damp from the spray of the rain, made their way quietly over. "Fortune smiles on you." The Washi lifted a hand to the Touga and gestured towards Rakka. The Touga offered his umbrella to her.  
  
Taking it from him, she bowed in thanks, before studying Ketsu, inquiringly. The dark-haired Haibane smiled back at her, before bowing to both the Washi and the Touga. She then waved a little notebook, that she had been holding under her arm, at Rakka before pocketing it.  
  
"It seems that all the formalities are now complete. Go now." The Washi waved a dismissal at the two Haibane. Ketsu started away, towards the gate, but Rakka lingered, sensing something. She bowed at the Washi, not sure of what she was feeling. "Farewell, Haibane Rakka." The Washi said, softly. Rakka looked at him and nodded, before turning and following Ketsu.  
  
Eventually, the gate was opened, and the soft jingling of the Haibane's bells disappeared. The Washi turned to the Touga and signed a silent communication. The Touga responded, slowly and unsure. Then they stood, facing each other for several moments before the Washi proffered his cane. The Touga nervously took the symbol of the Haibane Renmei from the old man and watched as the Washi turned and walked back towards the entrance to the Wall.  
  
----o  
  
The crossing of the bridge over the river seemed less of a daunting experience to Ketsu the second time round, though Rakka was not sure whether Ketsu really registered what she was doing. The girl seemed to have fallen into another of her dreamstates since her emergence from the gardens of the temple, and Rakka was dying to ask what had happened between her and the Touga during the rainstorm.  
  
She also noticed that, apart from the umbrella, Ketsu was holding something else in her hand, something small that glittered in the light on the odd occasion that she was able to see it. As they emerged on the other side of the bridge, Ketsu caught Rakka's inquiring gaze and quickly pocketed the object. "What?" Ketsu asked, challengingly.  
  
"Oh, its.... nothing, really."  
  
"Hmmm...." Ketsu smiled and looked back across the river to the distant temple. Above it, she could see the ghostly image of the giant, spinning windvane. This dissipated as a soft, white light rose from the temple, disappearing quickly into the haze of the clouds.  
  
Rakka noticed Ketsu's stare, and followed it, but saw nothing. She turned back to Ketsu, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"You know...." Ketsu cleared her throat. "I really don't like crossing that bridge very much." She took hold of Rakka's arm, smiling. "Though I guess I could get used to it. After all, you work here almost every day, don't you?"  
  
Rakka, taken off her guard, could only blurt out a reply.... "Umm, yeah."  
  
"You wouldn't mind if I helped you? I mean, it would be alright, if I went in there with you, wouldn't it?"  
  
"I don't know.... I can ask...." Rakka was about to say something else when Ketsu's stomach growled. The girl looked down at her belly, her face blushing.  
  
"You don't suppose we could get something for lunch. I was too nervous this morning to eat a proper breakfast."  
  
There was a rumble of thunder nearby, and Rakka quickly hurried them along. "Whatever we do, we better do it quickly. I don't like our chances with these umbrellas if we're caught in the next shower out in the open."  
  
"Its just water." Ketsu protested. "I like water. Like the pond...."  
  
"Pond?" Rakka looked at her, but Ketsu's expression had changed.  
  
"Sorry, I'm thinking of something else. Don't worry about it." Ketsu went quiet for a few moments. "Where are we going to have lunch? Back in Old Home?"  
  
"No, probably in town. It is about time you met some real people."  
  
"I have all the people I want." Ketsu gripped Rakka's arm tightly. "But, maybe, one or two more won't hurt...."  
  
----o  
  
Time had passed since the world had reformed for him. Gone was the darkness and the nightmare of the blooded woods. Gone was the one with the golden hair and the scarlet eyes, halo and wings. Gone, even, were the moments of perpetual silence that had followed. Now he had a voice, and was more alone than ever.  
  
The Washi considered the new feather who stood before him, summoned to the temple, though obviously not wanting to be there. The Haibane's hazel eyes were untrustful, darting around the temple grounds as if trying to assure himself that it was all real. The Washi cleared his throat to gain his attention.  
  
"Haibane Fune." The Washi held out his closed hand, something small held within. The Haibane Fune looked at it, dubiously. "Take it." The Washi ordered, impatiently. "It belongs to you, now." With this, Fune reached out and took what the Washi was offering.  
  
A small blade, its handle painted and carved with red feathers.  
  
**END OF PART 9**  
  
----o  
  
When I started writing this fanfic, it was the end of Winter, going into Spring, here in Adelaide. There really aren't any cold winters here, not the kind as shown in Haibane Renmei.... There never is any snow (though we do get some pathetic flakes on top of the nearby Mount Lofty).  
  
But there are Summers. Really horrible ones. The hottest day I have ever experienced in my life occured earlier this year (February.... 44.3c, followed by a day that was 43c, don't ask me what that is in fahrenheit) and that is one of the reasons why I chose to set this story in the middle of Summer in Glie.  
  
Now it is November, and the weather in these past two chapters is mirroring the local weather in Adelaide. Not as humid, mind you, but we're in the season for thunderstorms. I like thunderstorms. I find them relaxing, for some odd reason.... I tend to doze off during them, especially if they arrive in mid-afternoon or at night. Must be something I inherited from my father, since he slept through the Adelaide earthquake of 1952(?), the biggest natural disaster this city has ever gone through. :)  
  
The next chapter: no weddings and a funeral. :)  
  
DARK DAY FOR ANIME - THE RIGHT DISHONOURABLE MARK A PAGE

darkdayforanime at hotmail dot com

**FEATHER 1.0: 1st-4th November 2004 **


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